THOROUGHBRED RACING : A Winning Twin Is Equine Rarity

Spectacular Bid’s granddam was a twin. And in 1983, a mare in foal to Blushing Groom, one of the best sires of that decade, produced twins. The mare’s name was No Duplicate.

Twins can happen in the best of families, but at a breeding farm they are as welcome as locusts. “Twins are the opposite of everything that a breeder is striving to get when he mates a couple of horses,” said Jock Jocoy, a veterinarian who lives in Del Mar.

About 20 years ago, Jocoy and a few friends owned a filly who was a twin. “She only weighed about 850 pounds,” Jocoy said. “But she had some initial speed, and we thought she might be all right. She never finished in the money.”

Last week, a twin who had never won a race received a victory at Santa Anita because of a stewards’ disqualification. Karl Nijinsky, a grandson of Nijinsky II, the English Triple Crown champion in 1970, paid $211.20 to win, setting off a triple payoff of $174,331.80, a California record. A woman in her 60s from Long Beach had the only winning ticket.

Jon White, who called the chart of Karl Nijinsky’s victory for the Daily Racing Form, has seen and written about races around the country and can recall offhand only two or three twins winning races.

In addition to listing Karl Nijinsky as a 3-year-old colt in the past performances, the Form also designated him as a twin. It’s the equivalent of Hester Prynne’s scarlet letter: watch out for this one, bet with caution.

In Karl Nijinsky’s seven-race career, no one has bet much money on him. Kicking around the $28,000 to $32,000 claiming ranks, he has gone off at odds of 99-1, 49-1 and 33-1. In two races at Fairplex Park during a 10-day period in September, he ran seventh both times, losing by a total of 31-plus lengths.

Still, his trainer, Sherman Keller Jr., a retired schoolteacher who recently returned to the backstretch, gave Karl Nijinsky a chance last week. “We turned him out early in the year,” Keller said. “Then he’d been working good at Fairplex, and we figured he’d be right there.” Karl Nijinsky lost by a neck and was moved up after the foul.

Even if Karl Nijinsky wins some more races, he will still have to bear his stigma. “Twins are not considered good property,” Jocoy said. “Frequently, they have physical defects. They can be sways or have U-necks or be real skinny. And once a mare has twins, you won’t find anybody who wants to breed to her again. People get gun-shy, afraid she’s going to have twins again.”

Through ultrasound equipment, it is now possible to detect twins in a mare 10 to 25 days after conception. If the condition is discovered before 30 days, there is a good chance that one of the foals will survive if the other is aborted.

“Carrying two fetuses to term is very unusual,” Jocoy said. “There’s just not enough room in a mare’s body for both twins to survive.”

In 1959, at the late Maxwell Gluck’s Elmendorf Farm in Lexington, Ky., Danger Ahead, after being mated with To Market, did produce twin fillies. Their names were Go On Green and Stop On Red, and they both won at the track and became broodmares, Stop On Red producing two stakes winners.

Stop On Red also produced Spectacular, who was bred to Bold Bidder and foaled Spectacular Bid, the horse of the year in 1980. That might make Stop On Red the most distinguished twin in thoroughbred racing. Any other candidates out there?

Blushing Groom, at 17, has been retired as a stallion, but one of his sons, Arazi, is coming from France, trying to make the adjustment from grass to dirt, for a crack at the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Churchill Downs on Nov. 2.

Arazi was outrun and finished second in his first race last May, but since then he’s won six in a row in an unusually busy year for a European 2-year-old. Francois Boutin, the noted French trainer, said Arazi is better for his age than any young horse he’s trained.

Boutin brought Miesque to the United States and won the Breeders’ Cup Mile with her in 1987 and ’88. Boutin won major races with April Run on both sides of the Atlantic.

Boutin wanted to wrap up the year on Arazi after he won his sixth race, on Oct. 5. But Allen Paulson, the American aerospace executive who is co-owner of Arazi, insisted that they run at Churchill Downs. Paulson would like to see Arazi run in the Kentucky Derby next year, and he figures the colt can use the Breeders’ Cup to get accustomed to the track.

After buying Arazi for $350,000, Paulson tried to sell him at another auction but kept the colt when no one offered his $300,000 minimum bid.

Recently, Paulson sold a 50% interest in Arazi to Sheik Mohammed Al Maktoum, who has won Breeders’ Cup races with Pebbles and In The Wings. Paulson said a condition of the sale is that neither side tell the price, but a bloodstock agent familiar with the transaction said that the Sheik paid $5 million.

Paulson went 50-50 with Bert Firestone into the 1987 Breeders’ Cup, and their Theatrical won the Turf. Paulson’s partnership with the Sheik figures to be easier. Paulson and Firestone argued about virtually everything, including the color of the silks that their jockey, Pat Day, should wear in the race.

Horse Racing Notes

Pat Valenzuela has been hired to ride Arazi in the Juvenile, and with six other assignments, he could join the small list of jockeys who have ridden an entire Breeders’ Cup card. Valenzuela’s other mounts are Media Plan in the Sprint, Soviet Sojourn in the Juvenile Fillies, Brought To Mind in the Distaff, Opening Verse (for Allen Paulson) in the Mile, Filago in the Turf and Strike The Gold in the Classic.

Fowda, Paulson’s filly who won the Hollywood Oaks, chipped a knee in the Spinster at Keeneland and has undergone arthroscopic surgery. She should be able to race as a 4-year-old. . . . Paulson’s Dinard, the Santa Anita Derby winner who was injured while training for the Kentucky Derby, suffered a minor setback, a bruised foot, but is still expected to be ready for the Strub series at Santa Anita next year.

Easy Now, excluded from the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies by the committee that determines the final six in a 14-horse field, won the Astarita Stakes by two lengths Thursday at Aqueduct, running seven furlongs in 1:22 4/5. Easy Now, by Danzig and out of Relaxing, the dam of Easy Goer, scored an 11 1/2-length maiden victory in her only other race. Easy Now is at the top of the list of alternates, which means with one mor scratch by entry time next Wednesday, she would be able to run.

Eton Lad, who held the world record for 1 1/8 miles on grass for 10 days earlier this month, is among nine horses entered in Saturday’s $75,000 Henry P. Russell Handicap at 1 1/4 miles on the turf at the Oak Tree at Santa Anita meeting. Eton Lad set the record for 1 1/8 miles with a 1:44 clocking in his American debut on Oct. 10; then Kostroma ran a fifth of a second faster last Sunday at Santa Anita while winning the Las Palmas Handicap. Others running in the Russell are Diable Au Corps, second to Eton Lad last time; Theatrical Charmer; Bright Prospector; Digression, Eton Lad’s stablemate who ran third in the 1 1/8-mile race; Cool Gold Mood; Seven Rivers; La Kaldoun and Stop the Stage.