2019 Godolphin Mile Winner
Sire: Stay Thirsty
Grandsire: Bernardini
Dam: Miner’s Secret
Damsire: Mineshaft
Other relatives: Unknown
Sex: Male
Foaled: 2015
Country: United States
Colour: Dark Bay
Breeder: Michael Edward Connelly
Owner: Robert V. LaPenta and Head of Plains Partners LLC
Trainer: Todd Pletcher
Jockey: Javier Castellano
Record: 13 Starts: 8 - 0 - 1
Earnings: $1,825,280
Post Career: Entered stud in 2020 at Spendthrift Farm, KY
Coal Front was a tough, versatile, hard knocking sprinter and miler who became one of the more popular older horses in the country during his peak seasons of 2018 and 2019. He was a bay colt born in 2014 in Kentucky. His sire was Stay Thirsty, the Travers Stakes winner of 2011 who narrowly missed in the Belmont Stakes that same year. His dam was Miner's Secret, by Mineshaft, who himself was the 2003 Horse of the Year. The pedigree was strong on both sides, with two top class American sires close up. Coal Front was raced by Robert V. LaPenta in partnership with Head of Plains Partners and was trained by Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher. He never won a Grade 1, but he became a dependable graded stakes winner who shipped well, ran on different surfaces, and stretched out from sprints to a one turn mile without missing a beat.
He started his career late as a three year old in 2017 and made up for lost time quickly. He won his first three career races, including the Amsterdam Stakes at Saratoga and the Gallant Bob Stakes at Parx, both Grade level wins for an emerging sprinter. He kept rolling at four with a victory in the Mr. Prospector Stakes at Gulfstream. His five year old season in 2019 was the high water mark of his career. He won the Razorback Handicap at Oaklawn Park stretching out, then traveled across the world to take the Godolphin Mile at Meydan Racecourse on Dubai World Cup night, beating an international field on one of the biggest stages in the sport. He added the Parx Dirt Mile at Parx Racing later that year and was retired soon after with eight wins from thirteen starts and earnings of more than 1.7 million dollars.
He went to stud in Kentucky, at first standing at Lane's End, but after his fee softened, he was relocated to a regional stallion job in Louisiana, where he stands at a friendly fee that makes him available to small breeders. His first crops have included graded stakes runners and useful regional stakes winners, even if he has not yet produced a runner who matches his own racing record. Coal Front is the kind of horse who tends to be undervalued in the breeding shed because he never had a Grade 1 line on his page, but his honest career across three years of racing tells the more important story. He was sound, fast, well traveled, and willing to fight at every distance and surface his connections asked him to try.
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