She is brilliant, beautiful, bold and beloved. But she is also a living work of art, wrought over more than two centuries.
Whereas a work of art may take a decade or longer to complete, Treve is a work of centuries.
Even a cursory glance through Treve’s pedigree reveals some of the greatest names in thoroughbred history. Within her first 5 generations are Sadler’s Wells, Danzig, Mr. Prospector, Trillion, Top Ville, Secretariat, Buckpasser, Vaguely Noble and Nasrullah. Further back still, we find Hyperion, Gainsborough, Selene, Scapa Flow, Tracery, Swynford, Fair Trial, Rustom Pasha, Sir Gallahad, The Tetrarch and the champions of their day, the incomparable Pretty Polly and Mumtaz Mahal, “The Flying Filly.”
However, if we go even further back in time to 1882, we find a name that appears on both sides of Treve’s distinguished pedigree: Plaisanterie. Although she stands very far back in Treve’s pedigree — too far to have had a decisive hand in the making of the mighty Treve — her influence remains incontrovertible. Had Plaisanterie not added her “colours” to Treve’s bloodlines, there would have been no Treve at all. Distant in time as she may be, Plaisanterie, like any of the other names in Treve’s pedigree history, played a fundamental role in sculpting one of the best thoroughbreds that we have ever seen.
In Plaisanterie, we have an absolutely brilliant runner and an important broodmare — a kind of home run in development of the breed.
The filly was owned in part by the influential Carter family:
“The Carters had a dominating effect on French Racing not only because they were so numerous, but also because they had talent. Other racing families came to France in imitation, such as the Cunningtons, Jennings and Watsons, with whom they intermarried, but perhaps none were so pervasive. The Carters were the founders of the English colony in Chantilly and instrumental in the future racing success of the town and nation. Members of this family have an unparalleled racing record; they won the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe 5 times, the Prix du Jockey Club on no less than 27 occasions, the Grand Prix de Paris on 16 runnings and the Prix de Diane 23 times.” (Excerpt from Thoroughbred Heritage, “Les Anglais in France,” @ http://www.tbheritage.com/TurfHallmarks/Trainers/Fr/Anglais3.html)
The Carters were a very large clan and Thomas Carter, who trained Plaisanterie, followed in the footsteps of his father, Thomas Carter Senior, who was known at Chantilly by his nickname, “The Genius.” Thomas “The Genius” Senior had been invited to train in France by Lord Seymour in 1831; subsequent members of the Carter family so dominated horse racing for the next 131 years (1831-1964) that some still think of Thomas Senior as the “father of the French turf.” In 1836, Thomas Senior took on a pair of apprentice trainers, John and Tom Jennings. As fate would have it, the Jennings and Head families are related by marriage: Tom Jennings is a direct ancestor of Criquette Head-Maarek, Treve’s brilliant trainer.
It was Thomas Carter Junior who purchased Plaisanterie, in whom he maintained a half ownership until his partner died, at which point he bought her outright. And that was a good thing, too, since the filly went on to win 16 (14) of her 18 (15) starts in Europe and England. (Note: The bracket indicates that there is some disagreement about how many times Plaisanterie actually raced, although no source states more than 18 starts, and her second places are either 1 or 2. However, during her turf career, the filly was never worse than second.)
So brilliant was Plaisanterie — and so pervasive and numerous were the members of the Carter family in Chantilly by this time — that Thomas Junior became known as “Carter Plaisanterie.” Racing almost always against colts, Carter’s filly won some very big races, including Germany’s most prestigious — the Grosser Preis von Baden. In October 1885, the 3 year-old was sent to England to contest the “Autumn Double” at Newmarket, the Cesarewitch and Cambridgeshire Handicaps. Carrying 98 pounds into the 2 1/4 mile Cesarewitch, Plaisanterie took the lead in the closing stages to win by two lengths, becoming the first French-trained thoroughbred to ever win the Cesarewitch.
But the win also landed Plaisanterie an extra fourteen pounds for the 9f Cambridgeshire, run two weeks later. Undaunted, the courageous filly disputed the lead from the start and was never in danger of defeat. In fact, she won “very easily” from the 5 year-old Bendigo; the favourite, St. Gatien, finished far back.
Plaisanterie became the second of only three horses to complete the “Autumn Double” since its inauguration in 1839. In fact, so decisive were her wins that Lord Falmouth appealed to the (English) Jockey Club to disallow French thoroughbreds from being entered into either race!
By the time she was retired, Plaisanterie had a full race record, including wins in G1’s in France in the Prix du Cedre, Grand Prix de Chantilly, Prix de la Seine and the Prix Du Prince Dorange. As a broodmare, she was equally successful. Bred to St. Simon and Orme, her best offspring were Childwick (1890), Raconteur (1892) and the filly, Topiary (1901).
Through Childwick’s sire line comes the filly, Sega Ville (1968), whose son Top Ville (1976) is the maternal grandsire of Treve’s sire, Motivator (2002). In Treve’s female family, Childwick again plays a role. Bergamasque (1969) — the grandam of Balbonella (1984), the dam of Treve’s BM sire, Anabaa(1992) — descends from him.
Plaisanterie’s “bloodedness” runs in Treve’s veins from two centuries ago, one of a huge number of thoroughbreds who have helped to “colour” a champion. We wonder, too, if something of Treve’s “strength of mind” owes to her champion ancestress. In a world where everything is so immediate, it is a comfort to behold Treve, the work of generation after generation of thoroughbreds.
And although we can only imagine Plaisanterie’s triumphs on the turf, just perhaps, it looked something like this ………
BONUS FEATURES
1) Treve’s Theme Song:
2) Training Treve (with English subtitles — Please DON’T CLICK when “ENGLISH VERSION” comes up. The subtitles are right after it & continue throughout):
3) TREVE wins the 2014 ARC
4) TREVE: Career highlights
*************************************************************************************************************************************************************
If you love THE VAULT, please accept my heartfelt thanks. I have set up a charity for donations for horse rescues. Please consider making a donation.
http://www.gofundme.com/8d2cher4
Together we can make a difference.
****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
NOTE: THE VAULT is a non-profit website. (Any advertising that appears on THE VAULT is placed there by WordPress and the profit, if any, goes to WordPress.) We make every effort to honour copyright for the photographs used in our articles. It is not our policy to use the property of any photographer without his/her permission, although the task of sourcing photographs is hugely compromised by the social media, where many photographs prove impossible to trace. Please do not hesitate to contact THE VAULT regarding any copyright concerns. Thank you.
Northern Dancer…?? He certainly bears a mention. Just sayin’ 🙂
LikeLike
Always Nell: Actually, the article before this one was all about Northern Dancer and his “European connection.” Being Canadian, I mention The Dancer every chance I get! But this time, I wanted to write about this distant relative of Treve’s. Thank you so much for taking the time to comment. I truly appreciate it, Abigail
LikeLike
Beautiful 🙂
LikeLike
Thank you so much, Leslie!!!! So pleased that you enjoyed this article. Abigail
LikeLike