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Citation was a horse that, if you saw race today, you wouldn’t believe was real. He was, of course, the eighth Triple Crown winner, completing the sweep of the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes in 1948. But he was also a horse that accomplished something else that you may not know, something that is just as distinguished: he was the very first race horse in history to win a million dollars in total earnings from racing. The great Calumet Farm was the owner and breeder of Citation, and the legendary trainers Ben and Jimmy Jones trained him. In 45 career races, he won 32, had 10 seconds, and 2 thirds, winning an aforementioned then-record $1,085,760 in his racing career. Something else that you may not be aware of about Citation was that he also beat older horses as a two-year-old colt. This is something that, in today’s time, could never happen, since juvenile horses simply aren’t allowed or even invited to race against anything other than other juveniles, but it’s surely an indication of what kind of a horse Citation really was. Overall, he won 8 of 9 races at two-years-old, and was named Champion Two-Year-Old Colt in 1947. Citation also did something that is unique at the start of his 3-year-old season in 1948 in that he beat older horses prior to competing in the Triple Crown races, which is very impressive indeed, but could not happen in modern racing because 3-year-olds are never put up against older horses now until after they’ve run in the Triple Crown races. Citation’s regular jockey since he was a juvenile, was killed during his Derby prep race season in a tragic drowning accident while fishing in Florida. Hall of Famer-to-be Eddie Arcaro took over the reins and lost his first race aboard Citation, but things settled down quickly, and Arcaro guided him to wins in his last two Kentucky Derby prep races. Citation won the Derby by a solid 3.5 lengths over a stablemate of his, Coaltown, a horse that would also be elected to the Hall of Fame and win Horse of the Year in 1949. Two weeks later Citation won by a dominant 5.5 lengths in the Preakness in a race that gave him no challenge whatsoever. He kept on doing things that no horse has ever done after that, this time running in the Jersey Stakes IN BETWEEN the Preakness and the Belmont, and winning! Then, he showed up at Belmont Park and equaled the then stakes record in an easy 2:28 ? jaunt in a contest in which the only scary moment was when Citation stumbled out of the starting gate, nearly falling to the ground. However, the sturdy colt righted himself, and went on to win in a breeze. Citation’s later career included an injury suffered at the end of his 3-year-old season, and a comeback as a 5-year-old that saw him reach that coveted one million dollar mark in career winnings. The 1930s and 1940s featured a grand total of 7 Triple Crown winners, so completing the sweep in that era was perhaps not as appreciated as it is now. So, when Citation won that 1948 Belmont, you can be sure that not a single living soul realized they were seeing the last Triple Crown Champion in 25 years. In fact, by the time the late 1960s came about, people were wondering if another horse would EVER win it again. Does that sound familiar to what some racing fans are saying about the Triple Crown in 2012?
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