Coal Battle's victory in the Rebel Stakes Feb. 23, which placed the colt atop the Road to the Kentucky Derby leaderboard, makes for an ideal time to revisit a BloodHorse magazine regional feature on one of the 3-year-old's breeders. In the March 2024 issue, Denis Blake shone a light on Jay Adcock and Red River Farms, a family operation in Coushatta, La. Coal Battle was also bred by Hume Wornall in Kentucky. Coal Battle's sire, Coal Front, who began his stud career in 2020, is in his first year standing at Red River Farms for $2,000.
Red River Farms has been around so long that owner Jay Adcock is not exactly sure when his father, the Major League Baseball All-Star Joe Adcock, started what is now one of Louisiana's leading Thoroughbred farms. One thing he is certain about is that with his son, Brandon, helping run the operation, the farm is set to keep going for the long run.
Like a lot of kids who grew up in the 1960s, Jay had dreams of becoming a professional baseball player. He certainly had the pedigree—his father twice earned All-Star honors and was a teammate of the legendary Hank Aaron on the 1957 World Series-winning Milwaukee Braves team—and he had the talent as a top player at Louisiana Tech University.
"I had a nice career and had an opportunity to play professional baseball, but it was a whole lot different back in 1980," said Jay. "The money wasn't near what it is now and there were no big signing bonuses. If you didn't make it to the very top, then you weren't making much money. I played with a bunch of guys that got drafted and a few made it, but others didn't."
While he occasionally thinks about what might have happened if he had followed in his father's footsteps on the baseball diamond, Jay is certain he made the right choice to instead follow his father's passion for horses.
"I wouldn't trade it for anything," he said about running Red River Farms. "I enjoy what I'm doing, and I'm very fortunate. And I'm still doing it."
Joe Adock, who died in 1999 at 71, is a member of the Braves Hall of Fame, right there with names such as Aaron, Eddie Mathews, Warren Spahn, and Greg Maddux. Adcock hit a total of 336 home runs in his career—including the rare feat of four in single game—and had a stint as a manager before devoting his time to the horse farm.
"My dad had show Appaloosas in the 1950s before he was finished with his baseball career, and then he gravitated to Thoroughbreds in the early or mid-1960s," said Jay. "He played professional baseball for almost 20 years, so he would go to racetracks when he was traveling around. He had a farm growing up with working horses and used to hunt off horses. He just liked horses."
That affinity for equines was passed on to Jay and strengthened by a childhood growing up on the farm in Coushatta, located in the northern portion of the state about an hour drive south of Shreveport.
"I was an outside-type person and always was at the farm since I can remember," recalled Jay. "I liked what my dad was doing, and after I went to college I just figured that was what I wanted to do."
In the 1970s and '80s, Joe Adcock frequently topped the state's list of leading breeders by breeders awards, and in the decades since Jay Adcock or Red River Farms have been fixtures on the list. Red River's roster will include eight stallions for the 2024 breeding season, including newcomer Gormley.
The millionaire winner of the 2017 Santa Anita Derby (G1) came to Red River after standing at Spendthrift Farm in Kentucky, and he brings with him a résumé that includes success on the local scene.
"He's had a good reception so far," said Jay. "He's had a couple of Louisiana-bred stakes horses already, so he has a following down here."
Among Gormley's top runners is Bron and Brow, a four-time Louisiana-bred stakes winner that Adcock co-bred, and Kentucky-bred High Oak, winner of the 2021 Saratoga Special (G2).
The Adcock name is associated with some of the best Louisiana-breds to hit the track, including Joey Bob. Bred and co-owned by Joe, the Jack Van Berg trainee won the Cornhusker Handicap (G3) at Ak-Sar-Ben in 1972-73 while becoming the first Louisiana-bred to win a graded stakes.
Joey Bob in turn sired Free Spirit's Joy, who was raised at Red River before he became the first Louisiana-bred to win the Super Derby (G1) back when it was a $1 million race. In 1991, he upset a loaded field at Louisiana Downs that included Olympio, Best Pal, and Lite Light.
Through the years, Red River has continued to be one of the top breeders in Louisiana and among the top sellers at auctions in the region, but you won't see the Adcock or Red River silks in the winner's circle. All the foals bred by Red River are done so with the intention to sell them, and the stallions at the farm are all owned by outside interests.
"I haven't run anything since college," said Jay. "My father's adage was that it's better to sell and repent than to keep and repent. Everybody knows I'm there to sell at the auction. I don't want to be in competition with who I'm trying to sell to."
Jay is also upfront with his advice to anyone in the business, whether they are a newcomer or veteran. His philosophy explains how he enjoys the thrill of a victory, even if he doesn't own the horse at that time.
"If you get in the horse business, subconsciously you know the difference between a $5,000 claimer and a stakes horse," he said. "But if that horse is in contention turning for home, no matter what kind of race, and your stomach doesn't do somersaults, then you need to get out of the horse business and get some golf clubs or a fishing pole and do something else. It's a feeling you can't describe."
Just like Jay got that passion from his father, his younger son Brandon also caught the bug.
"Weirdly enough, my oldest son went into animal husbandry and pre-vet in school and he ended up going in a different direction and has his own business now, and my youngest was in economics and the oil business, and then they flip-flopped," said Jay.
Brandon opted against a career in business, and he's found his calling back at the farm where he grew up.
"I had plans to do other things after college, but after I graduated I went back to the farm the next morning and I'm still here," said Brandon.
"I grew up here and there were no babysitters, so if I wasn't in school I was at the farm," he added. "It's the same people and atmosphere every day. It's a close-knit type of family thing. I get to spend time with my mom and dad, and there's always something to do."
While he can absorb the experience earned by his father, some of which comes from his late grandfather, Brandon also brings knowledge of his own to the table.
"Nothing changes from year to year and there's no new routines," he said about how the farm is operated. "We do the same thing that's been working since the 1960s. But I'm slowly trying to teach my dad about technology and using apps on his phone. I can get a lot of info with social media and online quicker than he can. So I can tell him what happened and then he can pick up the phone and tell his buddies. He's pretty old school, but we are slowly starting to convert him."
While that might be a slight change in the operation of the farm, the hands-on family aspect has not changed at all. With staffing an ongoing challenge, much of the work is done by Jay and Brandon.
"You can show people and tell people what to do, but he still likes to do everything himself," said Brandon. "We handle the stallions and broodmares and we are there when every horse is palpated. He keeps his own books and records. He's very hands-on. Even the mowing of the pastures, we are doing it all."
Compared to an office job, working on a 300-plus acre farm is a different world with no holidays and a never-ending list of tasks to complete. But Brandon, like his father, wouldn't have it any other way.
"I go places and hear people talking about my grandfather and my father and their horses, and now I'm doing the same thing that they did before me, so I really enjoy it."
And the elder Adcock is happy to have the next generation involved in the family business.
"The help situation is a whole different thing than when I started, so it's great having Brandon here," said Jay. "You can depend on family to be there and get things done."
Things haven't changed much at Red River Farms in the six decades since Joe Adcock started the operation, but then there's no point in changing something that's working. So the long hours, hard work, and hands-on approach will continue, but if it's something you love doing, then it really doesn't seem like work.
"My dad told me this many times," recalled Jay. "He said of all the things he's done in life, outside of his family, the most satisfying was to watch his horses run. He thoroughly enjoyed it, and I feel the same way."
