Citation has become known as the first horse to earn more than a million dollars in prize money. He laid the foundations for this in an exceptional year, in which he started 29 times and won 27 times.
Lineage and description
Citation was born on April 11, 1945 at the ‘Calumet Farm’. He was a brown horse, with Bull Lea as his father and Hydroplane as mother. Citation died at the age of 25 (August 8, 1970), he was buried in the horse cemetery at Calumet Farm.
Career
Two years:
He won easily on his debut. Then he left for ‘Arlington Park’, where he broke the track record of ‘5 furlongs’ in his second race. As a two-year-old, he started nine times, won eight times and made $ 155,680 that year. The course he lost, he lost to his stable mate Bewitch, a mare who broke the track record in that course.
Three years:
At the start of its second racing season, Citation did something exceptional. He managed to beat ‘Horse of the year 1947’ called Armed twice. Armed was a very good horse with a lot of experience, it was not exactly obvious that a youngster would beat him. Here you saw the class of Citation.
Unfortunately, Citation’s jockey drowned while fishing and they had to find a new rider for Citation. Arcaro, a friend of Snider’s, was hired; in the first start Citation lost. This would be the last price Citation would lose in the next two years. In the Kentucky Derby, Alcaro and Citation did manage to win and Alcaro gave Snider’s widow some of the money he had received for riding from Citation. Citation went through the courts like a whirlwind, winning almost everything there was to win. At the end of his second racing season, he had started 29 times (this is really a lot), of which he won 27 times. He made $ 865,150 that year and became Horse of the year 1948.
Five years:
No, I haven’t forgotten a year. In 1949 Citation always suffered from minor injuries, so he did not race that year. In 1950 he came back completely as a five-year-old, he won a draw, which was his 16th consecutive victory. His owner had brought him back for racing with the idea that Citation would be the first horse to earn $ 1 million, he was so close. This was somewhat complicated by the arrival of ‘Noor’, imported from England, who defeated Citation (who had to carry more weight) four times. It should be mentioned here that Noor ran world records, and Citation also dived under the old records, they were both fast, but Noor was just a bit faster.
Six years:
One more time the owners wanted to try with Citation, this turned out to be a minor disappointment. Citation finished second twice and after that even finished outside the prize money. In the end he managed to win the Hollywood Gold Cup, ahead of Bewitch and still got over the million in prize money, being the first horse in history. After this achievement, Citation took his well-deserved retirement. The final score was $ 1,085,760.
Citation as a stallion
He entered the stud service at the stud where he himself was born. His most famous offspring are the mare Silver Spoon (Hall of Fame) and Fabius (Preakness winner in 1956).