(This is the final part of a five part series.)
In 1951, Congress passed the 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, limiting the President to two terms. The first nuclear bomb tests were conducted at the Nevada Test Site. America, after nearly four years of war in Europe and the Pacific, was now engaged in another struggle in Korea in an effort to contain communist expansion. General Douglas MacArthur, Commander of United Nations Forces, was relieved of duty by President Truman.
A Cleveland disc jockey named Alan Freed, introduced the phrase 'Rock and Roll.'
The biggest motion pictures were An American in Paris, The African Queen, A Streetcar Named Desire, and A Place in the Sun. In television's infancy, the immensely popular I Love Lucy show would begin its six year run.
Carl Sandburg was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his Complete Poems (Harcourt), as was Conrad Richter for his novel The Town (Knopf).
Two iconic figures of American sports would retire in 1951. Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees, who ten years earlier had hit safely in 56 consecutive games, and demonstrated how to swing a bat, field a fly ball, and run the bases with unbelievable ease and grace, bid his farewell. And Thoroughbred racing's Citation, who at one point in his storied career had won sixteen straight races, and dominated his foes with his own incredible ease and grace, was also preparing to leave. But before he did, the big bay from Calumet Farm had one more objective; and he would race on until he reached it.
PART FIVE: THE MILLION DOLLAR HORSE
Elder Statesman
During a lengthy layoff, Citation had been in Lexington, Kentucky, doing well in light workouts. On April 18, 1951, nearly ten months since his loss to Noor in the Golden Gate Handicap, the horse began racing again. As he prepared for a final campaign as a six-year-old, Citation was now an elder statesman, and needed only $61,370 more to reach his seven figure goal. Jimmy Jones entered him in a six furlong allowance at Bay Meadows and for the first time in his career, Citation finished lower than second. He ran well, and was only a length behind the winner A Lark, who nosed runner-up Pancho Supreme. Citation's take for the outing was a paltry $430. He started again at the same track and distance eight days later in another allowance, known as the Veterans Hospital Handicap, for a $5,000 purse; but again, he could do no better than third with Pancho Supreme turning the tables on A Lark. Citation's paycheck was $400, and at this rate, he'd be racing for some time.
Slow Going
Citation would make five more starts in 1951, all at Hollywood Park, beginning with the six furlong Premiere Handicap on May 11. He lost again, finishing out of the money for the only time in his career. Whether or not he could have actually won is questionable, but he had an excuse for not finishing higher. In the stretch, he had no room to run and consequently checked in fifth over the wire, after the fast filly Special Touch led the way home. As far back as ninth in a field of ten, Citation closed ground around the turn before encountering traffic. It must have seemed strange to go home without a paycheck.
The horse continued to come up short. Entered with stablemates Coaltown and Bewitch, the trio took on seven other horses, on May 30, in the 1 1/16 mile Argonaut Handicap, worth $25,000. Coaltown set the pace until the far turn, where Be Fleet went out in front with Citation also advancing, but he couldn't reach the leader who crossed the finish three lengths ahead. Citation's second place effort earned him $5,000, to bring his career tally to $944,460. After his sixth loss in a row, and fourth on the year, Citation began making things happen.
In the Zone
Citation started again on June 14 in the $15,000 added mile Century Handicap. It was a small field of five, including Be Fleet, who had received three pounds from Citation in the Argonaut. Now Citation would get the same allowance from his rival, and go under 120. Study One came in at 110, and the other two runners, Sir Butch and Belin, got away with even lighter assignments. When the gates opened, Citation sat in third, advanced at the far turn, and kept Be Fleet safe at the wire, the margin a half length, with Study One arriving next. The winner earned $8,250 and increased his career earnings to $952,710.
On July 4, Citation, carrying 123, entered post five for the 1 1/8 mile American Handicap, facing seven opponents. Bewitch, under 106, was down a few doors in post eight. Both the son and daughter of Bull Lea stayed back in the early going as three other horses vied for the lead. As had been his usual custom, Citation began moving around the far turn, and Bewitch was also quickly engaging. The two Calumet entries were almost even heading for home, but Citation kept Bewitch at bay by a half length in an all out effort for the win. Study One again finished third. Citation's time of 1:48 2/5 was just two ticks short of Noor's track record set the previous year. The race was worth more than $56,000, and netted Citation $33,050, to bring his career bankroll to $985,760.
Just behind Citation in all-time earnings were Stymie, with $918,485 from 131 starts; Armed, with $817,475 from 81 starts; Assault, with $675,470 from 42 starts; and Whirlaway, with $561,161 from 60 starts.
Among this rich group, only Stymie, a former claimer, wasn't named Horse of the Year. Three horses, Whirlaway, Assault, and Citation, won the Triple Crown, and Whirlaway, Armed, and Citation were from Calumet Farm. Now Citation was about to deepen his pockets and pull further away from the others.
Millionaire
The first running of Hollywood Park's 1 ¼ mile Hollywood Gold Cup was in 1938 and the winner was folk hero Seabiscuit, carrying 133 pounds, under jockey George “Iceman” Woolf. Seabiscuit collected $37,150. Kayak II, in 1939, and Challedon, in 1940, received pay cuts for their victories, bringing to the bank $35,075, and $36,200 respectively. The winner's share then went up over $60,000, but decreased by 1945 when Challenge Me took home less than $50,000. Beginning with Solidarity in 1949 through Quack in 1972, the winner's take was at least $100,000. After another dip, the purse steadily rose again.
Besides Seabiscuit, other illustrious winners in the race's history have been Noor, Swaps, Round Table, Gallant Man, Exceller, Affirmed, Ferdinand, Best Pal, Cigar, Skip Away, and Real Quiet. The fastest time ever run was Quack's 1:58 20 in 1972. No horse ever repeated a win except the California-breds Native Diver and Lava Man, who each won the race three times. In 1971, Ack Ack won under the highest impost ever assigned, 134 pounds, and remains the only horse to be named Eclipse Horse of the Year, after a season's campaign entirely in California. The race was not run in 1942-43, and staged at Santa Anita Park in 1949.
Twenty years before Ack Ack, on July 14, 1951, ten runners lined up for the twelveth edition of the Hollywood Gold Cup, with a total purse of $137,500. Among them was Citation, who would go well over the million mark if he won, and still reach the milestone if he finished second.
After the gates opened, another Calumet entry, All Blue, set the pace with Be Fleet tracking. Citation, under Steve Brooks, stayed close behind in third and not pressed. Bewitch was well back at this point. All Blue and Be Fleet sparred with each other up front, while Citation began to ramp up in the back stretch. Coming around the far turn, Citation took charge, and in the stretch, bounded away by four lengths. Bewitch rallied relentlessly, and overtook Be Fleet in the last few jumps to get second place. All Blue finished seventh. It was a glorious day for Calumet Farm, Jimmy Jones, and of course Citation, horse racing's first millionaire. Having netted $100,000, his bank roll jumped to $1,085,760. Part of the day also belonged to Bewitch, whose runner-up finish earned her $20,000, giving her a career total of $462,605, eclipsing Gallorette as the new all-time richest female.
Farewell
Jones was elated that Citation seemed like his old self again, was enthusiastic about the horse's form, and felt he could keep going. He was tentatively named a starter in the Sunset Handicap the following weekend. However, after achieving the final goal, Mrs. Warren Wright, the deceased owner's widow, wanted Jones to stop on the horse. On July 19, 1951, Citation was retired. The big bay left the racing world in good shape and despite missing his entire four-year-old season, and enduring the heartbreak of two sub-par and arduous years, he was still regarded by some as the greatest racehorse ever to set foot on a racetrack. The following Sunday, Citation bid farewell, parading before his devoted public at Hollywood Park, with exercise rider Freeman McMillan aboard. He bowed out with a resume of 45 starts, 32 wins, 10 seconds, two thirds and record earnings, an incredible amount in those days, perhaps comparable to $9 million dollars today. The $709,740 he made in his storybook year of 1948, was also a divisional record at the time. He only finished out of the money once. On September 9, two-time champion Coaltown, the other half of Calumet's devastating one-two punch, followed Citation in retirement. On September 3, Bewitch, two-year-old champion female back in 1947, ran her final race, an unplaced effort in the Washington Park Handicap.
Champion of Champions
At the end of the year, Turf and Sport Digest voted Citation champion handicap male. In voting by Daily Racing Form, he was edged out for the same award by Hill Prince, although he did receive three votes for Horse of the Year, which went to Counterpoint. It was now time for the champion of champions to come home to Calumet and begin a new chapter in his life.
The Kids
The stallion Citation started for a stud fee of $5,000, and as expected, there was much anticipation about his offspring. His first crop, born in 1953, consisted of eighteen foals, who would turn racing age in two years. Citation's first foal was named Cy's First, an unraced brown filly, out of the Blenheim II mare Flitaway. Seven of his sons and daughters sold as yearlings at auction, and commanded generous prices, the highest for a colt out of the Man o'War mare Bout, for $50,000. Things started out promising for Citation. His daughter, Beyond, a chestnut filly, out of Always by Sun Teddy, won the Acorn Stakes. Another daughter, the bay Carmel, out of Astrida (Ire.) by Court Martial (GB), annexed the Nursery Stakes at two. And then there was the classic winner.
From the 1953 crop, Citation's best progeny was Fabius, a brown colt out of the Royal Minstrel (GB) mare Shameen. A runner with good speed, Fabius made 65 starts in his career. He finished third in the Fountain of Youth and Flamingo Stakes, and won the Derby Trial. After finishing second in the Kentucky Derby to Needles, Fabius quickly derailed any ambitions the Derby winner had for Triple Crown glory by capturing the Preakness Stakes. He then finished third in the Belmont Stakes, as Needles returned to the winner's circle. Fabius also ran second in the Ohio Derby. At age four, he won the Armed Handicap and was runner-up in the Gulfstream Park Handicap.
A few of Citation's later runners were Manteau, winner of the Ohio Derby and third in both the Blue Grass Stakes and Arlington Classic, stakes winner Sky Clipper, and the stakes placed filly Evening Time.
Another of Citation's very good racers was a bay colt named Guadalcanal. Foaled in 1958, out of the Mahmoud (Fr.) mare Level Sands, Guadalcanal was multiple stakes placed from 91 starts, notably a second place finish in the Travers Stakes, a third in both the Belmont Stakes and Woodward Stakes, and two successive runner-up performances in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, when he had the misfortune of running during the same period as the immortal gelding Kelso, who would own the race for five straight years.
Citation's chestnut colt Get Around came along in 1960, out of the bay mare Lotopep. Get Around's broodmare sire was Menow, a two-year-old champion, and the sire of two Horse of the Year honorees, Capot, and the great Tom Fool. Get Around won the Withers Stakes in 1963.
Silver Spoon
One of the horse's offspring deserves special mention. This was Citation's daughter, Silver Spoon. A good sized chestnut filly, standing 16.2 hands, and bred in Kentucky by owner-breeder Cornellius Vanderbilt Whitney, Silver Spoon was foaled in 1956, out of the Mahmoud mare Silver Fog. The accomplishments of Silver Spoon were not only monumental but amazing due to a chronic hip disorder that she endured throughout her career. Silver Spoon didn't let that stop her. In the beginning, Whitney considered putting her up for sale, because of uncertainty about her ability to race. Before the sale, she was tried in a low-level six furlong claiming contest at Belmont Park for two-year-olds, and proceeded to destroy a very large field of 27 other runners, her winning margin six lengths. She was then sent out to California, where she started once more as a juvenile in late December, winning a Santa Anita six furlong allowance by more than three lengths.
As a three-year-old in 1959, Silver Spoon won her next four races, all stakes contests, including the Santa Anita Derby, to become the first female since Ciencia in 1939, to win it. She defeated nine rivals including future Preakness winner Royal Orbit. California's signature event for three-year-olds had its inception back in the mid-1930s, and after Winning Colors also won the race in 1988, no other filly has succeeded. With the victory, Citation's daughter also became the first three-year-old filly to win a $100,000 race. Silver Spoon faced males again in her next outing, finishing third to eventual Horse of the Year Sword Dancer. After a strong fifth place effort in the Kentucky Derby, among a field of seventeen, she continued to flourish, and in her next start defeated the Derby winner Tomy Lee in the Cinema Handicap. Following her season, Silver Spoon was named champion three-year-old filly (Thoroughbred Racing Associations). And she wasn't through yet.
Silver Spoon returned as a four-year-old, and took on the boys again in the Santa Anita Handicap, to finish fifth in a field of twelve. She then became the first filly or mare to carry 130 pounds to victory in both Santa Anita's Santa Margarita Handicap and Hollywood Park's Vanity Handicap. In 1978, Silver Spoon was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.
Later Years
In 1952, the year following Citation's retirement, Calumet Farm boased another Derby winner in Hill Gail, Hollywood Gold Cup winner in the mare Two Lea, and three-year-old champion female in Real Delight. The farm would win the Run for the Roses again in both 1957 with Iron Liege, and 1958, when Tim Tam won the race and also the Preakness, before finishing a courageous second in the Belmont Stakes, after breaking down. Calumet's last great racer and stallion was undoubtedly Alydar, whose epic battles with Triple Crown winner Affirmed in the latter 1970s, are legend.
On May 19, 1956, at Garden State Park, reigning Horse of the Year Nashua won the $30,000 Camden Handicap. With the win, he netted $22,750, bringing his career total to $1,100,365 to go by Citation.
In 1959, Citation became a charter member of Racing's Hall of Fame, the same year Bewitch died. Bewitch, a two-year-old champion, back in 1947, was inducted in 1977. Coaltown, who died in 1965, joined them as an inductee in 1983.
Citation continued to enjoy his life in retirement at Calumet Farm. On April 19, 1970, his last foal was born, a chestnut colt out of Courthouse by multiple stakes winner Traffic Judge, and named Cy's Last Sigh. He was a winner from 102 starts, although apparently not black-type. What also became significant was the birth of a chestnut colt a few weeks earlier in Virginia. He would make a later connection with Citation that is etched in racing annals.
On August 8, 1970, at the age of twenty-five, the great Citation died due to the infirmities of old age. The horse who had been compared to Man o'War, was buried in the Calumet cemetary plot alongside the farm's other standouts, among them his remarkable sire Bull Lea. And the beautiful chestnut out in Virginia started to grow up. After twenty-five years, he had finally come along, a horse worthy enough to take the baton from Citation and run like the wind with it. And with the triumph of Secretariat, the distant and beloved memory of Citation echoed loudly across the racing landscape.
Resources
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043208/
http://www.pulitzer.org/bycat/Fiction
A.P. “Citation Returning To Action On Track,” The Calgary Herald, January 4, 1951.
A.P. “Citation Heads Back To Wars, Eyes Million,” The Portsmouth Times, January 4, 1951.
A.P. “Citation In Third In Comeback Try,” The New York Times, April 19, 1951.
A.P. “Citation Third to Pancho Supreme And A Lark in Bay Meadows Sprint,” The New York Times, April 27, 1951.
A.P. “Citation Tops Premiere Field,” St. Joseph, Mo., Gazette, May 11, 1951.
A.P. “Citation Is Fifth In Coast Sprint,” The New York Times, May 12, 1951.
U.P. “Citation Is Fifth In Comeback Try,” Toledo Blade, May 12, 1951.
INS. “Citation Is Out Of Money First Time In His Career,” Miami Daily News, May 12, 1951.
A.P. “Be Fleet Outruns Citation On Coast,” The New York Times, May 31, 1951.
A.P. “Citation Tries Again At Mile,” Miami Daily News, June 14, 1951.
U.P. “Citation Triumphs In Coast Handicap,” The New York Times, June 15, 1951.
A.P. “Citation Runs Fast Mile To Win $8,250,” Miami Daily News, June 15, 1951.
U.P. “Citation Victor; Bewitch Is Next To Calumet Ace,” The New York Times, July 5, 1951.
Pete Arthur. “Citation Nearing Million In Race Track Earnings,” The Calgary Herald, July 5, 1951.
Daily Racing Form. The American Racing Manual, 1992 Edition (Hightstown, N.J.: Daily Racing Form, Inc.: 1992).
A.P. “Million Mark Aim Of Citation Today,” The New York Times, July 14, 1951.
A.P. “Citation First On Coast, Earnings Reaching $1,085,760,” The New York Times, July 15, 1951.
U.P. “Citation Hits Million in Cup Victory,” Deseret News, July 15, 1951.
INS. “Citation's Life-Time Earnings Over Million,” Rome News-Tribune, July 15, 1951.
Daily Racing Form. Champions: The Lives, Times, and Past Performances of America's Greatest Thoroughbreds. Revised Edition, Champions from 1893-2004 (New York, N.Y.: Daily Racing Form Press, 2005).
Thoroughbred Champions: Top 100 Racehorses of the 20th Century (Lexington, KY: The Blood-Horse Inc., 1999).
A.P. “Citation May Race Again On Saturday,” The New York Times, July 16, 1951.
A.P. “Million Dollar Horse Citation to Retire,” Register-Guard, July 20, 1951.
U.P. “No More Glory to Win, So Citation Is Retired,” The Milwaukee Journal, July 20, 1951.
A.P. “Citation Parades at Track, Gets Salute From Fans,” The Milwaukee Journal, July 23, 1951.
A.P. “Calumet Farms Will Retire Coaltown,” The News and Courier, September 9, 1951.
U.P. “Citation Is Named Champ,” Greensburg Daily Tribune, December 20, 1951.
A.P. “Counterpoint Named Horse-Of-The-Year,” The Lewiston Daily Sun, November 19, 1951.
John L. Califano. “A Distinctive Dame,” California Thoroughbred, April 2009.
Pohla Smith. Citation Thoroughbred Legends No. 3 (Lexington, KY: Eclipse Press, 2000).
Thoroughbred Times Co. Inc., The Original Thoroughbred Times Racing Almanac 2009 (Lexington, KY: Thoroughbred Times Books, 2008).
Pedigreequery.com
Equineline.com
A.P. “Fabius and Nashua In Big Victories; All-Time Money Winning Mark,” Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, May 22, 1956.
http://www.racingmuseum.org/hall-of-fame/horses-view.asp?varID=29
A.P. "Citation's Offspring Due To Race," Sarasota Herald-Tribune, February 13, 1955.
John Chandler. "Citation Offspring Will Race This Year," The Miami News, February 13, 1955.
A.P. "Citation Is Dead at 25; Won Triple Crown in '48," The New York Times, August 12, 1970.
Walter L. Johns (Central Press Sports Editor). "Sports Sputterings," The Titusville Herald, August 14, 1970.
Copyright 2011, 2012 by John Califano
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