SPORTING Citation May Be World’s Biggest Money Winner

Greymouth Evening Star, 26 February 1949, Page 7

SPORTING Citation May Be World’s Biggest Money Winner

Regarded by some United States racing men as the best ever, and by many as one of the three best horses, along with Man o’ War and Count Fleet, to have raced on the American continent since 1914, Citation is expected in the next few months to fashion himself a place in history as the first horse to win more than a million dollars. Now on the threshold of his four-year-old career, Citation is already running the world’s leading money-winner, .Stymie, a close second, having won just over 850,000 dollars in stakes. .Citation is by the Bulldog horse Bull Lea, leading sire (with a total of I, dollars) in the United States in the season just closed. Actually, more than half of this sum was amassed by Citation himself. His dam is the English-bred mare Hydroplane 11, who failed to win a race in her two seasons on the Turf. # Citation has only twice been beaten in the two seasons he has raced, once by his stablemate Bewitch as a two-year-old and once last year by a horse called Saggy, at Havre de Grace. In the other 27 races he has contested the champion has shown a clean pair of heels to the opposition. Over All Distances

He has won from six furlongs to extreme distances, and proof of his versatility was furnished when he won the Sysonby Mile and the Jockey Club Gold Cup, two miles, at Belmont Park, New York, at successive starts late last season. His first race for over three months, the Sysonby Mile, is stated to have been little more than a work-out for Citation, as he coasted home three lengths clean of the Mahmoud four-year-old, First Flight. In the Gold Cup, one of America’s surest tests of stamina, he was always in front. He eventually beat Phalanx, a four-year-old, to whom he was conceding 31b, by seven lengths. He was easing, too. In both these races he met top-class older horses, but this did not prevent him from smothering the opposition as effectively as he had done in his earlier races as a three-year-old. Citation went on to add the Empire City International Gold Cup, of 100,000 dolars, and one of California’s major events, the Tanforan Handicap, of 50,000 dollars, to his brilliant list of victories. • A San Francisco sporting writer states that Citation’s owner, Mr Warren Wright, wanted to show all sections of the country how good his colt was, before the horse was eventually retired to take up stud duty at Calumet Farm, Kentucky, the Wright showplace, and the breeding centre of the famous Blue Grass State.

A National Idol

Mr Wright contended that Citation’s presence in the Tanforan Handicap would be in the best interests of racing in general, and. that the colt, winner of America’s triple crown, namely the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont Stakes, had lifted himself beyond the dollars and cents viewpoint and that he now belonged to the nation. Californians looked forward to the clash between Citation and Austra-lian-bred Shannon 11, but the duel did not eventuate as the latter, the ackknowledged champion of the West, was withdrawn some days before the Tanforan Handicap was decided. However, the racing fans who flocked to Tanforan on the day of pie . race were quick to apreciate why Citation was claimed by many in the Eastern States to be one of the five greatest American racers of the present century, and possibly the greatest of all One sporting writer, who witnessed Citation’s effortless victory in his only

appearance on a Californian track, enumerates the qualities that are essential in the make-up of a really great racehorse First and 'foremost in his opinion is the quality, or style, of his action. The action of a champion is smooth, flawless, and often quite deceptive. Effortless Style

In breaking a record he does not appear to be going very fast, but he accomplishes his feats without apparent effort. Tire more rhythmical the stride, the better chance the horse has to become great. He has no waste motion, nor is his stride impeded by' faulty actionfaulty to the extent, in some instances, of a horse cutting his leg to pieces. The second point when rating a horse for greatness concerns ability to make a move when called upon, and, if requested, to make more than one move in a race. It is an accepted fact that the average thoroughbred has but one move in a race, and that at no further than three furlongs, but a great horse can rally at the start, at the far turn, or in the final stages of a short or marathon event. The Californian’s opinion is that Citation has all these qualities. A critic raised a controversy in American racing circles when he submitted a list of the 30 outstanding horses to have raced in the United States since 1919. A racing man, who has seen Ameri-, ca’s best horses in action during the past 50 years, stated that this writer had succeeded in pleasing no one. In fact, one trainer, with tears in his eyes, asked him: “How in the name of heaven did he ever leave out Blue Larkspur or Busher?” Comparisons Impossible

It will be freely admitted that it is impossible to compare horses of different eras, and this sportsman asserts that 90 per cent, of the most vociferous “judges” now setting forth their opinions in the racing Press that Citation is the greatest American racer ever, never even saw Man o’ War race, Jet alone such earlier champions as Sysonby' and the unbeaten Colin, However, he offers the opinion that these four horses, with the addition of Count Fleet, have been the “super racehorses” of their respective periods in American Turf history. While the appellation of “Champion of Champions” cannot for obvious reasons be bestowed on any one horse, it is certain that, barring accidents, the Calumet Farm colt will make history by becoming the first horse in any part of the world to win a million dollars.