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INTERNATIONAL FEATURE DECEMBER 6, 2014 Treve takes it easy at Quesnay this winter by Sue Finley The world's most famous racehorse, looking to pull off what would be the world's most impressive racing feat, currently spends her days far from a racecourse. Instead, she lounges in a paddock eating grass, hanging out with her new two-year-old best friend and waiting for visitors bringing carrots. The latter is typically her equally celebrated trainer, Criquette Head-Maarek, who made the trip from Chantilly yesterday to show her prize pupil, Treve, to Thoroughbred Daily News staffers in town for the Arqana December sale while the soon-to-be five-year-old mare winters at her family's farm, Haras du Quesnay, just outside of Deauville. Just two months to the day of her second straight Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe victory, when she became the seventh two-time winner of the race and just the first since Alleged in 1978-79, Treve is living large at Quesnay, spending up to six hours lounging outside with a two-year-old filly companion and Head-Maarek trainee who is also resting up over the winter and getting a break from what would be a busier, more hectic life at her trainer's stable in Chantilly. All this quiet, of course, is the calm before the storm; she'll gear up next year in an attempt to become the first-ever three-time Arc winner. "She arrived here three weeks ago and she'll be here until the first week of February and then she'll be back in Chantilly," Head-Maarek said. "I send a lot of two-year-olds and older mares to spend the winters here when I keep them in training. So right now, I have nine two-year-olds plus this one," she said, giving Treve a pat. "It's good for them; they've got no weight on their back. In Chantilly right now, it would be freezing, she would be trotting. She's better eating grass." The decision to race Treve again at five came as a welcome surprise to Head-Maarek, she said. Just after her Arc win, her owner, Sheikh Joaan Al Thani, said she would be retired, and most likely bred to Dubawi. "They decided just like that, I suppose, and then they changed their mind," Head-Maarek said. "They talked with my dad (Alec) and he felt, well, it was a good idea to keep her as a five-year-old. I was very pleased to tell you the truth, even if it's a very difficult thing to achieve. A third Arc, it's very difficult. But as a trainer, when you have a chance to have a filly like that, you like to keep her in your yard." Right now, all the signs say it was the right move. "If she's sound, she'll be as good as this year or last year," Head-Maarek continued. "Maybe better than this year because we had a few issues with her and she seems to be fine now," explaining that a cyst in her left front foot ultimately led to back problems. "It looks like it's all better because in the Arc, she was pretty good." The four-year-old bay seemed happy and healthy at Quesnay, greeting visitors, posing for pictures and trolling for carrots. Head-Maarek said that the reaction to the decision to keep her in training another year seemed to extend beyond racing and into an appreciative general public. "I was in England at the Chunnel crossing, and the man in the car park tapped on my car window and said, 'Are you Mrs. Head?' I said yes, and he said, 'Well done with Treve. I'll be rooting for her next year.'" Her star power was on display Friday. Head-Maarek said she entertains many requests for visits like ours, and Treve obligingly and willingly posed for pictures and accepted all the attention offered. Next year, of course, it will be time to head back to business. "Her main target will be to win the Arc, which will be one of the most difficult things to do," Head-Maarek said. "Her first start should be in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud in July, so she's got plenty of time and then the Prix Vermeille, and then the Arc, if everything goes well."
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