Citation (horse)
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Citation (April 11, 1945 - August 8, 1970) was a thoroughbred American horse-racing champion.
Owned and bred by Calumet Farm in Lexington, Kentucky, Citation was a bay colt, the son of Bull Lea and the mare, Hydroplane II. Trained by Horace A. "Jimmy" Jones, Citation won his first start as a two-year-old at Harve de Grace, Maryland. For the year he would race nine times, winning eight of them and earning $155,680. Citation was the first horse to win US$1 million.
Citation started the 1948 racing season by defeating stable mate Armed, who had been voted thoroughbred racing's 1947 Horse of the Year. Even though Jimmy Jones was Citation's trainer, the colt ran in the Kentucky Derby under his father's name to allow Ben Jones to tie the record for the most number of Derby wins by a trainer. Ridden by jockey Eddie Arcaro, Citation won the Kentucky Derby by 3 ½ lengths then went to Baltimore and won the Preakness Stakes by 5 ½ lengths. From there he won the Jersey Derby before going to the Elmont, New York and becoming the 8th Triple Crown winner by capturing the Belmont Stakes. By the end of that season, the three-year-old horse had a career record of 27 victories and two seconds in 29 starts. For his performances, Citation was voted Horse of the Year honors.
Injuries kept Citation from racing in 1949 but he came back to race in 1950 and won the Golden Gate Mile Handicap but lost several other races in what for him was a mediocre campaign. He started the 1951 season with three poor performances in a row but came back to win his final three starts, capping off his career with a victory in the Hollywood Gold Cup that made him thoroughbred racing's first millionaire.
Citation retired during the 1951 racing season, his accomplishments amongst the best in the history of American racing. As a sire at Calumet Farm he produced a number of noteworthy offspring but none that achieved any great success in the top levels of thoroughbred racing. In 1959, the horse was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.
Citation died on August 8, 1970 at the age of 25. He is buried in the horse cemetery at Calumet Farm.
In the Blood-Horse magazine ranking of the top 100 U.S. thoroughbred champions of the 20th Century, Citation was ranked #3.
- Career race record: 45 races - 32,10,2
- Career earnings: $1,085,760
Adapted from the article Citation (horse) (http://www.wikinfo.org/wiki.phtml?title=Citation_(horse)), from Wikinfo, licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.