Beholder and Treve: Two of the World’s Best

The great accomplishment of American Pharoah notwithstanding, the 21st century in many ways has been all about the ladies. Standout female runners such as Rachel Alexandra, Zenyatta, Rags to Riches, Ouija Board, Zarkava, Goldikova, Black Caviar, Vodka, and Gentildonna have made it so. Today, the outstanding girl power momentum built up by them, and many more, is currently in the best possible hands with a pair of superstar mares on either side of the Atlantic. Both champions, Beholder and Treve are not only continuing their stellar careers in 2015, but they are currently performing, at five-years-old, as well as they ever have. With each of them having huge tests coming up next month, let’s celebrate Beholder and Treve by taking taking a look back at their fantastic careers to this point.

Born one month apart back in the spring of 2010, both came out running as juveniles. The far more precocious of the two, the Kentucky-bred daughter of Henny Hughes actually was not the one to win first-out, though. Beholder ran into her soon to be rival Executiveprivilege in her debut in late June, and could only manage a fourth place finish. To this day, it remains her most disappointing result. The wins quickly followed, and the speedy filly came to the World Championships as one of the favorites for the event, despite an 0-for-2 against her rival, having narrowly missed to her in the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante. On the biggest stage, Beholder (Henny Hughes--Leslie’s Lady, by Tricky Creek) convincingly turned the tables on Executiveprivilege, and upped her juvenile record to 5-3-1-0. Meanwhile in France, Treve (Motivator--Trevise, by Anabaa) would only make it to the starting gate once as a juvenile, but she made the most of that opportunity by winning a maiden race with relative ease. The one mile event was won on September 22, 2012 at Longchamp under the watchful eye of trainer Criquette Head-Maarek.

Despite the big early lead in the race for juvenile filly honors in the States by her rival, Beholder’s win in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies was enough to carry the day, and the Spendthrift Farm filly earned her first Eclipse Award soon after the end of her two-year-old season.

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At three, the two fabulous fillies found similar results as they experienced at two. Once again, Beholder was beaten in her seasonal debut, but that loss in January’s seven furlong Santa Ynez would not hold her back from quickly reestablishing herself as the cream of the crop of California’s young fillies. Back-to-back stylish scores in a pair of Grade 1 events, the Las Virgenes and Santa Anita Oaks, took care of that for the Richard Mandella trained bay. On the first Friday in May, she ran a bangup race, only to finally succumb to the strong late run of Princess of Sylmar. That game defeat in the Kentucky Oaks would prove her last defeat for more than a year.

Just a few weeks later in France, Treve picked up right where she left off as a juvenile. Making short work of her well regarded competition in a one-mile event at Saint Cloud, the daughter of Motivator was thrust into the big time with a go in the Group 1 Prix de Diane in her third lifetime start. The move up in class was answered with disdain and superior talent. After this romping win, Treve was a bonafide star in her native land. Back in California, Beholder rolled in her return to the races. Wins in the Torrey Pines at Del Mar, and the Grade 1 Zenyatta at Santa Anita, sent her on her way to the Breeders’ Cup Distaff as one of the favorites once again. This time the competition was even greater though, with two-time winner Royal Delta, and the Princess of the East, providing great competition on paper. Beholder would need to run huge to win. She did, and her competition could not. The result was a devastating victory under Gary Stevens. It was a victory that not only earned Beholder a second Breeders’ Cup victory, but one that clinched her second year-end championship. As good as that was, though, it may have fallen short of the accomplishment of Treve.

With her fourth victory without a loss under her belt, Treve looked to build upon her big victory in the Group 1 Prix Vermeille in the toughest of possible places. The world’s most prestigious grass race had been won before by a few three-year-old fillies, but that takes nothing away from the amazing accomplishment of winning against her older male competition the way she did. In strikingly similar fashion to what she had done a month earlier against her own gender, Treve turned the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe into a one-horse show. Both her turn of foot, and her domination, were a thing of beauty, and well worthy of her being named Europe’s Champion Horse of 2013. At four, both champions would have their share of bumps in the road. Beholder, who suffered an injury in her only loss of the year in Belmont Park’s Grade 1 Ogden Phipps, looked to be back on the beam when she outgamed her rivals in the Grade 1 Zenyatta in late September at Santa Anita. The performance seemed to set her up ideally for a run at a third consecutive Breeders’ Cup. Unfortunately, it was not meant to be, as a poorly timed fever put her on the shelf for the remainder of her third season. In a twist of fate, this turn of events prevented a planned sale in November which could well have ended her racing career.

Treve battled physical ailments much of the year, and actually attended her second Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe a winless filly in 2014. Her second place finish in the Prix Ganay, third in the Prince of Wales’s, and fourth in the Prix Vermeille were far from disgraces, but the once undefeated Arc winner, was no longer invincible, and in fact, not expected by most to defend her title. Her trainer remained confident that she would be ready to show her best again, though, and sure enough the Al Shaqab color bearer would not be denied in the big one in Paris. Back and healthy for 2015, Treve has looked the mature monster that she has promised since day one. Three successive wins in the Prix Corrida, Grand Prix de Paris, over Flintshire, and last week’s sublime romp in the Prix Vermeille demonstrate that the great French mare is in the form of her life. She will need her best to fend off the many challengers that will be ready to attempt to knock her off her lofty perch.

2015 has also been a very good year for Beholder. Facile scores in the Santa Lucia and Adoration in the spring got her season going in winning fashion, but it was her pair of victories at Del Mar in the summer that took things to a whole new exciting level. In the Grade 1 Clement L. Hirsch, her complete domination of the competition reminded us all that she is still the best female in runner in America. That gender clarification may soon prove to be an unneeded suffix, though. Beholder announced herself as the best older horse of either sex with an absolute tour-de-force in the Grade 1 Pacific Classic. There you have it. Two marvelous careers, and both mares are far from done yet. Both talented and now proving timeless, Beholder (19-14-3-0) and Treve (10-7-1-1) will attempt to make history in October. First Treve will make a historic run at her third consecutive victory in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. The magnitude of winning it a third time, she would become the first in history to do so, can not be overstated. Nor can Beholder’s upcoming assignment in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. If she can win that one, becoming only the second female ever to do so, it will come at the hands of the first Triple Crown winner to ever compete in the Classic. Heady stuff indeed for a pair of great five-year-old mares.