More than 75 years ago, Citation unleash the greatest 3-year season in the thoroughbred race. Blessed by real speed, lasting strength and an apparently endless desire to win and inspired his dealer Jimmy Jones to say brave: “My horse could hit everything with my hair.”
Citation won 19 of 20 races in 1948. He won at every distance, won on 10 different tracks and won in seven different states that traveled in dusty trucks and in tail cars on the landscape. He won his races with a total of 66 lengths and swept the triple crown races with a total of 17 lengths. The victories in the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes were part of his 16-race victory eating.
The quote represented the praised Calumet Farm and the Jones Boys, his private coaches. Native of Purnell, Mo., they conquered eight Kentucky Derbys and created a dynasty that has never agreed. The notable coach Ben Jones, statuesque, forceful and a dreaded racket, told his son the evening before the Kentucky Derby from 1948: “Jimmy, you can sleep well tonight and you can take this gospel as a gospel: every horse design can see, he can catch and he has perfect eyesight.”
The quote was the product of a magnificent pair of blood line by Warren Wrights Calumet Farm in the rolling Green Hills by Fayette County, Ky. The father was Bull Lea, who ended a disappointing eighth as a 3-1 election in the 1938 Kentucky Derby. He decided to try a little strange blood and bought Lord Derby from Citation in the spring of 1941.
That was the uncomplicated part. But bringing them to the United States at the beginning of World War II was a dilemma. To avoid war stor pedos of U-boats in the Atlantic, Wright Hydroplane II sent a time-consuming Pacific route. Finally Bull Lea and Hydroplane II came together and produced a Bay Colt on April 11, 1945. Wright sent him to the Jones stable in Florida as a yearling to learn his racing hours. Then we went to Maryland to start the race in 1947.
As a 2-year-old, Citation ran a classic material from the start and achieved eight victories and a second-placed person who was appointed 2-year-old. The stallion foal wintered in Haleeah Park, where he achieved four victories in a row. After winning the Flamingo Stakes, the regular jockey from Citation, Al Snider, tragically off the Florida coast in a fishing accident. Trainer Jones called Eddie Arcaro, one of Snider's best friends.
In Arcaro's first ride, the citation in the Chesapeake Trail Stakes was second after Saggy on a muddy route.
“I could have caught him,” said Arcaro after the race, “but I was not about to burn this horse for an 8,300 dollar pot, with all of these 100,000 dollar races lying ahead of us.”
Five days later, the loss was avoided when the quote won the Chesapeake stakes with 11 lengths. He won the derby process a week before the Kentucky Derby, but the enthusiasm in Churchill Downs concentrated on another Calumet candidate, Coaltown, who had smashed the success record of the Blue Grass Stakes last week. He was trained by Ben Jones.
One centimeter rain fell on the derby day. It would be a sloppy 1 1/4 miles. When the gates opened, Coaltown took the lead and in half the mile the Colt drove over six lengths. Then signaled Arcaro Citation, which with ease rolled past his stare after a 3 1/2 length victory. Although the good-natured Jimmy Jones Citation's coach was, the Colt ran under Ben Jones' name in the derby, so he bind the coach HJ “Derby Dick” Thompson's record of four Kentucky derby winners. Arcaro gave his friend Snider's widow part of the wallet.
When the prevalance rolled around, Coaltown took a pass. The Gigantic Cy had the race for itself, sprinted forward and galloped a 5/2 length number over Vulcan's Forge. After an 11-length romp in the Jersey appearances, the quote went to the Belmont Stakes, his sights on the final jewel of the Triple Crown.
On June 12th on a speedy route in Belmont Park, when the quote rounded off the distant curve, Arcaro clung to the flying mane of the colts as they accelerated the route to achieve a win with eight lengths over the better themselves. The record of Citation Count Fleet Fleet from 2:28 1/5 and became Racing's eighth (and Calumets second) Triple Crown winner.
“Quote was the best ever. He was so speedy that he was startled by me,” said Arcaro.
Wrote the legendary lawn author Joe Palmer in Bloodhorse: “I couldn't see Arcaro moving. But with some slight demolition of the hands, he released the swelling energy of the great racing driver below him. Quote opened. He was three sixteenth, but he was at home. The audience in Belmont started roaring before he hit the Furlong Pole. This observer dropped his glasses, climbed over the various cameramen and went down the stairs to get into the champagne. “
The quote would win nine more starts in 1948. He won 19 of 20 starts, from six furgong sprints to 16-furlong marathons. After two years of Racing Citation's CV was breathtaking: 29 starts, 27 victories, two second-placed and world record profits of $ 865,150.
He won horse of the year in 1948. But an oselet of his injuries to the left front ankle and tendons from the race in 1949. On January 11, 1950, the citation in its first race has won in exactly 13 months and took a race of 1 1/2 length to extend its winning streak to 16 races.
The 5-year-old took eight more starts in 1950, won once and took second place seven times. The losses were one of the losses to the talented noor, some of them heartbreaking. In the handicap in Santa Anita, the quote against Noor lost 1 1/4 length, while transporting 132 pounds, 22 more than his Vanquisher.
When Warren Wright died in 1950, he saw that the Jones Boys train long enough to break the 1 million dollar brand. At the beginning of the year, Citation had a profit of 938,630 US dollars, but his first three starts achieved the aging legend only $ 830.
He ran third place twice, then the Hollywood premiere Handicap Citation was excreted out of money for the first time in his career. On July 14, 1951, Citation was a winner with a win in the Hollywood Gold Cup in Inglewood, who brought him to $ 1,085,760 and signaled the end of his racing career.
epilogue
The losses suffered at the end of his career made his excellent reputation. Nevertheless, the 2- and 3-year achievements of citation, probably the most powerful American race that has ever been produced, will probably never match.
In 1951 the quote to his birthplace of the Calumet Farm was sent home. His career as a stud was never able to compete with his racing quantities, even though he recorded a champion stuffy foal in Silver Spoon and 1956 BRAKESS winner and Derby second place Fabius.
The quote died on August 8, 1970 at the age of 25 and was buried near his father and dam on the notable Pferdefriedhof of Calumet. Jimmy Jones' Hall of Fame time comrades, James Fitzsimmons and Max Hirsch, regarded the quote as the best they had ever seen, and in their early days they had seen war.
The quote was recorded in the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame in 1959 and chosen 3rd place in Bloodhorse's Top 100 race horses of the 20th century.
