Overachieving Coal Battle, a $70,000 purchase for Norman Stables at the Texas Thoroughbred Association summer yearling sale, has to be the greatest feel-good story of the 151st Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve.

The dark bay or brown son of Coal Front is trained by 72-year-old Lonnie Briley and will be ridden by Juan Vargas, 43. Each will be making his first Derby appearance.

Vargas was so lightly regarded when he arrived in the United States from his native Peru in 2008 that no agent was willing to represent him. He lined up mounts on his own while working primarily as an exercise rider to compensate for his minimal earnings as a jockey.

Former jockey Bethany Taylor has played a major role in Coal Battle’s development as a traveling assistant for Briley. She gets a leg up on the spunky colt each morning for training and is aboard for his workouts.

Coal Battle swept four consecutive starts, culminating in the Grade 2 Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park, before he finished third in the Arkansas Derby. He has won five of eight races overall for $1,188,875 in earnings.

Taylor, 38, spoke of the thrill of her first Derby experience and provided insight into the hard-hitting youngster that has taken the small Louisiana-based stable to great heights as part of a diary written with Tom Pedulla for America’s Best Racing.

This is my first Kentucky Derby and, even though I arrived at Churchill Downs with Coal Battle on April 6, everything still feels a bit surreal. It still hasn’t quite sunk in yet. None of us expected  this is where this colt would take us.

Trainer Lonnie Briley watches as Coal Battle gets a bath. (Coady Media)

There are stables who expect to compete in the Derby year after year. They are backed by owners who spend millions with the hope of getting here. That is not the case with our stable and with so many like ours across the country, which makes all of this extra special. There is a chance we will have another Coal Battle someday. In all honesty, it is a slim chance.

The only experience I have that compares to this — and it doesn’t compare all that much — came when I was a jockey. It was 2015, 2016, something in there, and an owner asked me to ride a filly for him in a maiden race at Pimlico on Black-Eyed Susan day.

It was not like being there for the Preakness the following day, but the Black-Eyed Susan draws a big crowd and I was excited to have the experience of riding away from home. I am all about having as many experiences as I can in this business, and I never hesitate to hit the road when Lonnie needs to ship a horse out of town.

The filly was named Cheypooter. She was as silly as they come even with the most careful handling. I wish I could say she ran well. I can’t. The trip to Maryland was more exciting than the race.

I think Coal Battle settled into Churchill Downs more easily than I did. I am still getting used to everything, especially the media. Reporters stop by every day wanting to know every detail on how he is doing and that is new for me.

Rebel Stakes winner Coal Battle. (Coady Media)

Coal Battle has a ton of personality and is loving the scene. He is a very intelligent horse, very professional, and he’s taking everything in stride. When we go onto the track each morning, he stops to take everything in. I never rush him and allow him to do whatever he needs to do to feel comfortable. He likes people and he especially likes photographers. He’s kind of a showoff and I swear he will pose for pictures.

Everyone in our barn is really happy with how he is doing. While not every horse takes to the Churchill Downs surface, he’s getting over it really well. I don’t have any doubt that he is moving forward in his training.

We were a little disappointed when he ran third in the Arkansas Derby only because he had won four in a row and seemed to do it with such ease. He was more on the muscle before the Arkansas Derby than we wanted him to be. With the benefit of hindsight, he was probably a little too fresh. Fortunately, it was not a race we had to win since he already had enough Derby qualifying points.

He showed how good he is feeling when he worked four furlongs in :47.80 on April 22 at Churchill without my urging him. It was probably a little faster than we wanted, but he showed the next day that it had not taken anything out of him because he was bucking and playing.

I have only seen the Derby on television. I had been to Churchill Downs before to watch races and I have visited the museum. But I had never worked here before and we never had a horse anywhere close to this caliber in my 15 years with Lonnie.

I am so happy for everyone in our stable, especially Lonnie. He likes to joke around and keep the atmosphere light. But he’s very hands on and he’s on top of everything. He does not miss a detail. Just because he has never had a horse capable of reaching the Derby does not mean he doesn’t know what to do with one.

Coal Battle winning the Rebel. (Eclipse Sportswire)

I also am especially happy for Juan Vargas, our jockey. It has been a long and difficult road for him to get to his first Derby. I know this means a lot to Juan. Competing in even one Derby is the highlight of any rider’s career and most will never make it.

Although Juan does not have the reputation of many of the riders in the field, he’s ridden Coal Battle in seven of his eight starts and knows him well. They get along great together. I think that is extremely important and I see that as an advantage for us because some of the big-name riders are just getting familiar with their mounts.

The mile-and-a-quarter distance is a question for Coal Battle and every horse in the field. I am confident he will handle it because we train up to two miles every morning and his gallop outs at the end of his works are always pretty strong. He can wear me out trying to pull him up.

The Derby is so hard to win and this is such a good field. At the same time, Coal Battle has a ton of heart and he always shows up. I know he will give us everything he has and make us proud. And that is all we can ask.