Double Take: Twin Thoroughbred Fillies Defying The Odds, Flourishing at Home

[Wandering Eyes]

On a quiet afternoon at Meadowbrook Farm in Shelbyville, Ky., mares and foals graze and stroll about while pregnant broodmares-in-waiting bask in the warmth of the sun's rays. And adjacent to all of them, in a small round pen set up alongside one of the main pastures, Surfside Stables' Kona Kai (Palace Malice) and her twin fillies enjoy a supervised turnout session.

Though they were born within minutes of each other, the twin fillies—daughters of Oscar Performance—look remarkably different, seemingly representing both halves of their genetic makeup. Nicknamed 'Mary-Kate,' the bay filly takes after her sire with a similar coat color, paired with a dollop of white adorning her forehead and a splash of color on her right hind leg. Meanwhile, her sister, fondly known as 'Ashley,' takes after her dam with a vibrant chestnut coat and a bold white face.

“Mary-Kate, from the get go, she's been the boss. Even though she's a bit smaller, she came out really strong. Those personalities haven't changed. Ashley is much more social, yet if you hold on to her and you let her go, she's the first one to try to kick you,” said Lori Hendrickson, who manages her family's farm, as she glances over at the fillies with a smile. “Growing up, I don't think that's going to change much.”

The reality of overseeing the care of a mare with twin foals is one that is still sinking in for Hendrickson, considering their arrival on March 10 was a complete surprise to all involved.

Mary-Kate takes a snooze in the field | Sara Gordon

After delivering her first foal last year, a filly by Oscar Performance, Kona Kai was bred back to the Mill Ridge Farm-based stallion and seemed to pass every checkpoint throughout her second pregnancy with flying colors. Though Hendrickson and her staff observed that Kona Kai appeared to be 'carrying low' as the weeks counted down to her due date, the vet had not seen anything irregular in the scans throughout her pregnancy.

Yet, Kona Kai had been keeping a secret.

“[Kona Kai] was in the way back [of the pasture] and she was lying down. I walked up close to her, asked her if she was okay, and that's when I heard her kind of pushing. We got her almost to the barn, her water breaks, and we had to make her go into the stall. I've heard that they'll sometimes stand up and have the baby, so I had a guy on one side of her and I was on the other. [Soon enough,] we caught the baby, laid it down slowly, but then of course the umbilical cord broke. Kona kind of turned a little, then the placenta came right out,” recalled Hendrickson. “After taking two steps forward, she lays down, and I ran to get the banamine. I thought something was really wrong with Kona at the time. [After] I got up to put the syringe away, we heard her push. I whipped my head around while my guy ran back behind her and he said, 'There's another baby.'”

Kona Kai with Lori Hendrickson | Sara Gordon

The news was equally as surprising for siblings Debbie and Howard Appel of Surfside Stables, with Debbie based in Florida and her brother based in California, as both tuned in to the live feed streaming from the camera in Kona Kai's stall.

“Our other mare, Phantom Opening [Arch], gets in foal with twins every time she's been in foal, so we're very familiar with the twin thing. We know the process, we were familiar with all of it, so I knew how bad it was to have twins. It was a big shock,” said Debbie Appel.

Though twin pregnancies aren't uncommon in Thoroughbred mares, a mare managing to successfully carry the twins to term is. Typically, the mare will likely abort within the first six weeks or, in the case she carries to birth, the twins will either not survive the birth or be born severely undersized and underdeveloped. It's due to those risks that when the presence of twins is revealed by a scan early on in the mare's pregnancy, breeders will have their vet 'pinch' or manually abort one of the embryos to give the other the best chance of survival.

However, it's been proven time and time again that horses aren't aware of statistics and don't live within the realm of science. This much was true of Kona Kai and her twin fillies, who not only evaded being discovered on routine scans but also beat the statistics when surviving well past birth.

Taking every precaution, Hendrickson conferred with the Appels and Kona Kai's vet before making the decision to transport the trio to Rood & Riddle for further observation and care under the watchful eye of Dr. Bonnie Barr, a neonatal specialist, and her team.

“When we drove up, I remember looking out [to see] people standing in all of the different buildings, they were all watching. From what one of the girls [at Rood & Riddle] told me, they had been on the radio to say 'we have two twins coming in and they are both the same size and they're doing really well,' and I think that the clinic just couldn't believe it,” said Hendrickson.

The trio spent a week at the hospital, receiving supportive care, as the veterinary team monitored their development through factors such as weight, bone growth and strength, and white blood cell count. When they were born, the twins weighed approximately 58 pounds and 62 pounds, respectively. At nearly a month old, Hendrickson said Ashley was weighing in at 102 pounds and Mary-Kate had reached 98 pounds.

“The one challenge that we had was trying to decide whether we should get a nurse mare for one of the twins or not, or keep them all together and try to see if Kona could manage. Howard and Lori and I kind of put our heads together and tried to figure out what we could do, [to determine] what was best. It was very hard because on one hand, we wanted to make sure the twins had every opportunity. But they clearly were so bonded, that became obvious, and not only the twins to each other, but Kona to the twins. They were a little family. The idea of separating one of those foals and putting them with the nurse mare, we just couldn't do it,” said Debbie Appel.

Kona Kai, Hendrickson, and her twins | Sara Gordon

“We [also] wanted to give it a little bit of time to see if Kona was able to produce enough [milk] to feed both of them,” added Howard Appel.

“It basically came down to the bloodwork. They were gaining weight every time they checked them. They had to do x-rays on knees and hocks to clarify what they would be able to do once they came home, and that's why they've been in a pen, [because] the knees were always great but the hocks needed more time,” said Hendrickson.

It was during the twins' time at the hospital that Debbie Appel shared the first photo of them on social media. That initial post, published March 12 on X, has now garnered nearly 875,000 views. The twins achieving social media stardom overnight was not something Appel had anticipated, but she has accepted it graciously, now sharing updates with photos and videos of the twins via Hendrickson, whenever she gets the chance.

“For both of us, we love racing and we love the industry. But one of the things that is sometimes troubling about it is [that] there's so much bad press and negative information that people use to beat up on horse racing. We looked at this as an opportunity to share a positive story, something that people can rally around,” explained Debbie Appel.

“It's very nice to see so much interest and that people have gravitated to the twins. Ultimately, our goal is that they'll be healthy and have a racing career. In the meantime, this is a feel-good story that has captured hearts internationally. We're happy to be a part of that and share this with everyone,” said Howard Appel.

Though it's been quite the learning curve for Hendrickson, who worked as a multiple stakes-winning trainer for 20 years before making the transition to working on the farm full-time a few years ago, she wouldn't trade the experiences for anything.

“I love watching them when they're born. [It's witnessing] that first time you take them out and they take a couple steps, then they'll jog a little bit, and then all of a sudden, they kind of find their legs and start kicking and galloping. You can almost see it within an hour or two, how much they change,” said Hendrickson. “It is stressful, but once they're born and you get past all of that, it's pretty entertaining.”

As they near the two-month mark, the twin fillies and their dam have leveled up to a larger paddock, providing ample room for the foals to stretch their legs…while also giving Kona a break from their antics.

In the meantime, Debbie and Howard are hoping to make the trip to Shelbyville from their respective homes on the East and West Coasts to finally meet Kona Kai's 'miracle' foals. It marks a memorable time in the siblings' experience within the industry since establishing their racing stable in 2018, highlighted by multiple graded stakes-placed geldings Oceanic (Constitution) and Midnight Rising (Mendelssohn).

Phantom Opening and Kona Kai, both campaigned by Surfside and trained by Jordan Blair during their racing careers, were retired to start a new chapter as broodmares which marked the Appels' first foray into breeding. Debbie and Howard are the first to acknowledge their status as a breed-to-race operation, but most importantly, an operation with a focus on 'breed-to-retire safely.'

“We know it's a tough business and we could have easily put horses in claiming and other things, but [instead] we've retired a number of horses because the last thing you want to see is an injury or to find out they're racing somewhere else. We've sent a number of horses to Second Stride and other organizations that can provide [the horses with] another life after racing,” said Howard Appel. “We try to give back to the industry as much as we can. We try to make sure that our horses stay healthy so that they can have a future after racing.”

Mary-Kate | Sara Gordon

Based on the significance of Kona Kai, and the impression her twins have already left from even states away, there is no question that living as part of the Surfside Stables herd will be their forever home.

“We want them to be healthy and we want to give them whatever tools or resources that we can to ensure that they have every opportunity to be on the track and be successful,” Howard Appel said of the twins. “But we know the odds are long and if it doesn't work out that way, then we'll find a way to continue their story. Either that or they'll end up in our backyard.”

“Wouldn't that make a great story, for them to be one of the first sets of twins to have a successful racing career? I mean, with any given horse on any given day, really with any horse born, nobody knows, right? You get the claimers that can run in stakes and sometimes the million-dollar purchases can't win anything,” replied Debbie Appel.

As the twin fillies doze beside each other, with their incredibly patient and doting mother Kona Kai watching over them, it's easy to envision the dream that all of their connections describe. And isn't that the beauty of this industry…this sport…these remarkable athletes? The triumph we all dream of is not only found when beating the odds, but defying them.

“We feel blessed to have the twins and Kona, and that they're all healthy. We have a dream that Mary-Kate and Ashley will be in the [2028] Kentucky Oaks, running down the stretch together and they finish in a dead heat. That's still the dream.”

The post Double Take: Twin Thoroughbred Fillies Defying The Odds, Flourishing at Home appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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