Meet the Alabama native (and Auburn fan) who owns a 2025 Kentucky Derby horse..
The last horse race in Alabama was run in 1995. But years later, Robbie Norman, a grocery-store owner in Thomasville, needed a new hobby.
He tried fishing and hunting, and didn’t care for either. He tried golf, which went poorly.
Then one day, Norman, born in Montgomery County, was flipping through cable channels when he came across a documentary about Union Rags, winner of the 2012 Belmont Stakes. Maybe horse racing could help fill his time.
Fast forward to 2025, and Norman owns Coal Battle, a colt who will run in the Kentucky Derby on Saturday. As Derby Day drew near, Norman was trying to control the nerves.
“You’ve got that dream and that thought in your mind of how the race plays out,” Norman told AL.com Wednesday at Churchill Downs. “And you do have that chance, but it is a very tough race, so not trying to get overly, too excited.”
It’s rare for a horse owner to enter the game as an adult with no prior experience. Norman started out on google, searching for anyone who could help him figure it out.
He then went to a sale in Ocala, Fl., buying his first thoroughbred, and, in a literal sense, was off to the races. Norman eventually found his way to Copper Crowne, an equestrian center in Louisiana, where he met trainer Lonnie Briley.
“He and his brother came there, walking the barns looking for a trainer and kind of introducing himself to everybody,” Briley told AL.com. “And then, for some reason or another, he came back to my barn.”
Norman wanted three things out of a trainer: knowledge, honesty and a willingness to take on an owner who knew nothing. He found all three in Briley, a racing lifer who, at age 72, saddled his first graded-stakes runner (Coal Battle) this year.
“Lonnie has just been wonderful in helping us over the years,” Norman said. “We learned a lot since then, but we’ve also learned how tough it is. It’s just a lot of work to try to find that nice horse.”
Since 2013, Norman has been looking, alongside Briley. Then, in 2023, at the Texas Thoroughbred Yearling Sale, they struck gold.
Briley was looking for a Louisiana-bred, but happened upon the Coal Front colt, who was from Kentucky. Even though Coal Battle wasn’t a perfect fit, the trainer got on the phone with Norman.
“I could tell in his voice, that was the horse,” Norman said.
$70,000 later, comparatively an extremely low price for a Derby horse, Norman had a contender. After Briley got the young horse into his care, he started singing its praises to the owner.
“Intelligent and smart were the words the trainer used to describe Coal Battle early on. High praise, but not exactly what Norman wanted. “I said, Lonnie, start telling me he’s fast,” Norman said with a laugh.
Coal Battle won his first race in July at Evangeline Downs, in Louisiana. Norman and Briley then sent him to Kentucky, where he raced on the grass for the first time at Kentucky Downs.
The young colt finished fourth in the race, which carried a $1 million purse and was won by fellow Derby contender Tiztastic, but his connections saw what they needed.
“Coal Battle ran a great race, and he drew into the race,” Norman said. “So had to draw position 14, which was way outside. And then we knew we needed to start taking the steps to put him into some races. We were not thinking Kentucky Derby, but we were thinking that we had a nice racehorse.”
The Derby journey started in December, when Coal Battle won the Springboard Mile at Remington Park in Oklahoma, which carried 10 Kentucky Derby points. The group then pointed him to Oaklawn Park in Arkansas, where he won the Smarty Jones and Rebel Stakes back-to-back.
Combined with a third-place finish in the Arkansas Derby last time out, and Coal Battle had plenty of points to make the Kentucky Derby field.
Coal Battle will be one of two horses with an Alabama connection in the starting gate for the race, joining Publisher, owned in part by Gus King of Guntersville. Norman, an Auburn fan, was joined in Louisville this week by his stepson Logan Criswell, a die-hard Alabama fan.
“When we won the Smarty Jones, he hollered ‘Roll Tide,’” Norman said. “I started telling people another thing, I said, ‘He’s hollering Roll Tide, but this is a War Eagle horse too.”
A win won’t come easy. The Kentucky Derby features 20 horses, and Coal Battle will be starting from the No. 16 post, a far outside position.
It will take a smart trip under jockey Juan Vargas.
“He breaks pretty sharp,” Briley said of what the perfect race would look like. “And then coming over and trying to find a spot and get in position. And then wait and wait and wait until it’s time to push the button.”
Coal Battle trained Monday at Churchill, before walking the shedrow Tuesday and Wednesday. The Kentucky Derby is scheduled to go off at 5:57 p.m. CT and will be aired on NBC.
While he waited for the race, Norman had some details to worry about.
“I have a lot of family members that are coming, so making sure they’ve got their tickets, their place to stay, where to park, that’s taken a lot of the mind off the horse race,” Norman said. “Just trying to get them up here.”
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