The great Citation not only won the 1948 Triple Crown, he overcame adversity to become thoroughbred racing's first millionaire!

Poll

Who is the leading contender right now for this year's Triple Crown?

Hansen - who won the Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Churchill last year.

18%

Union Rages - who won 3 or 4 races as a juvenile including the Grade 1 Champagne Stakes

20%

Algorithms - who recently scored a huge victory in the Grade 3 Holy Bull at Gulfstream Park

24%

It's just too early to determine the top contender for this year's Triple Crown racing season. Anything can still happen.

38%

Total votes: 309

The great Citation not only won the 1948 Triple Crown, he overcame adversity to become thoroughbred racing's first millionaire!

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Tue, 02/02/2010 - 8:38pm · espnsports

The legendary Citation won the 1948 Triple Crown, and that is what he will always be remembered for. What many fans are not aware of is that he also became the first horse to ever win a million dollars on the track, and even the ones that are aware of that might not know that he had to overcome an injury that had robbed him of his dominance.
His 1948 campaign was truly incredible. After he showed so much talent in 1947 that he actually carried weight as a juvenile, the star of Calumet Farm's stable of stars seemed destined to blow by a million dollars in career earnings at the end of his 1948 season. He began that immortal season by defeating older horses in an allowance race at Florida's Hialeah Park. He stayed in Florida to collect the 1st place winnings in the Seminole, Everglades, and Flamingo Stakes. Eddie Arcaro was his new jockey in the Chesapeake Trial Stakes, and was hung wide on the final turn and finished second behind a horse named Saggy. No one knew it at the time, but that was the only loss Citation would suffer in all of 1948. Incredibly, he returned to the track only five days later to avenge his loss to Saggy in the Chesapeake Stakes, finishing 15 lengths in front of the horse that had beaten him. After that came the Triple Crown sweep, which he followed up with seven additional starts, all wins of course.
But Citation's last start of 1948 would set his life on a different course. In the Tanforan Handicap in San Francisco, Citation set a then track record for the 10 furlong race, posting a time of 2:02 4/5. However, his trainer Jimmy Jones reported after the race that the horse was very sore in his left foreleg. At first, the injury didn't seem that serious, but it proved to be one that nearly ended his career. Jones was forced to hold him out of racing for all of his 4-year-old season of 1949, and when he came back in 1950, he just wasn't the same, winning just 2 of his 9 starts. Some racing writers thought he was a big disappointment, which seemed terribly unfair.
However, his owner Warren Wright was determined that Citation leave behind a legacy as the first millionaire horse, and in the 1951 Hollywood Gold Cup, the great horse called upon his heart, still as much of a champion as ever, to see him through. He won the race to become the first millionaire, and was immediately retired to a life of leisure. He didn't produce many winners as a sire, but it didn't matter. Citation had made his mark.

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Tue, 02/02/2010 - 11:34pm — soundofrum

Citation and Noor Rivalry

<<< In January of 1950 Citation came back after his layoff to win a six furlong race at Santa Anita, increasing his winning streak to a record sixteen straight victories. In his next start, he met Noor, Charles S. Howard's talented Irish-bred son of *Nasrullah, for the first time, and one of the most famous rivalries in racing history began. The two exchanged blows for several months, and new world records were set each time they met. Citation won the Golden Gate Mile, setting a new world record of 1:33 3/5 which stood until 1966. Noor, carrying 110 pounds, nosed out Citation, who carried 132 pounds, to set a new world record in the Santa Anita Handicap. Giving away thirteen pounds, The Big Cy was once again second to Noor in the San Juan Capistrano Handicap. Noor's world record of 2:52 4/5 for a mile and three quarters, set in the San Juan Capistrano, still stands today. Citation also chased Noor to world record times in the Forty-Niners Handicap and the Golden Gate Handicap. At the end of the season, Citation had raced nine times, won twice, finished second to Noor six times, and finished second to Roman Inn in a world record setting six furlong sprint.

Things came harder to Citation in his six-year-old season. He would have been retired, but Warren Wright's dying wish was for Citation to become the first equine millionaire, and so the champion raced on in pursuit of the goal. In his first start in ten months, Cy ran third in a six furlong sprint. He was third again the next time out. Then, in the Hollywood Premiere Handicap Citation ran out of the money for the first time in his career. It began to appear that Warren Wright's dream was not to be, especially when Citation lost again in the Argonaut Handicap, but the race was his final defeat. In his next start, Citation took the Century Handicap, and followed the victory by scoring in the American Handicap. In the final race of his career, Citation met his stablemate Bewitch, the champion mare who had handed him his first defeat. When the pair ran one-two in the Hollywood Gold Cup, Citation's win put him over the million dollar mark, while second money made Bewitch the all-time leading money winning mare, with her earnings totaling $462,605.

After making a final public appearance at Arlington Park in Chicago, Citation retired to Calumet Farm, along with the champions Coaltown and Bewitch. A Triple Crown winner, Horse of the Year, and the leading money winner in the world, Citation had also received the honor of becoming the first champion to be painted by Richard Stone Reeves.>>>

This was sooo exciting for me and is where I discovered the wonderful world of thoroughbred horse racing. Noor, btw, was owned by Charles Howard, Seabiscuits owner. In his prime and healthy, Citation would never have lost to, Noor. Especially at equal weights. JMHO

Thu, 02/04/2010 - 3:10am — redterror