CITATION - Full Documentary

citation was the Muhammad Ali at the top of this boxing game he was Babe Ruth from the top of his baseball game they cheered for citation the way they cheered for Michael Jordan during our turf Wiseman consider citation as the horse of the generation the greatest American thoroughbred since the immortal Man O'War I never did see him live on a racetrack but I've seen him in those old gray black and white film like it chills it reminds me of the days of racing that when you went to the back side of a racetrack and you talked to the trainers and the hot walkers and you could ask him who the president United States was and one of them might say I think it's Herbert Hoover all they worried about were the horses and who was going to be saddled up today and who's going to be the winner after you won the Triple Crown and before Secretariat came along people were thinking all the Triple Crowns too hard we should change the distances maybe lengthen the time between races it's too difficult to do you can look at secretary and say now there's a real racehorse citation was horse it didn't look like a killer but he was so well put together so well coordinated there wasn't any flamboyance at all to the performance he didn't try to win by any great amount of lengths or anything like that he just went out there and beat everybody that showed up from 1947 to 1951 citation 132 of 45 races finishing just once out of the money but more than his record it was the big Colts unremitting will to win that made him the most popular horse since Man O'War I mean this horse did things that no other horse had ever done he won 16 straight races at one point he ran 29 times in two straight years he was 19 for 20 as a three-year-old this horse must have been built out of titanium it's called vague side but around the barn had never caught him at it it's called an a horse the big horse you saw those rippling muscles you saw the power within him when he was off the tracker was power contained and when he was on the track it was power released supplying legs on citation er Carol calls red starts running away citation not only was a great horse he had impeccable breeding tremendous confidence in himself but he had the advantage of being in a great stable citation was born and raised at Racing's most exclusive address Calumet farm located in the heart of Kentucky's bluegrass country near Lexington the stable produced six horses of the year and for Kentucky Derby winners in the 1940s citation always symbolizes the great Calumet glory days they dominated American racing and breeding like no other outfit has or ever will again Calumet Francis what a horse farm would be in the movies it was unbelievably luxurious Kaiama farm was u.s. steel in the new york yankees in horse racing every time the Calumet farms in a horse to the track people thought that could be the next great horse because it came from Calumet farm that's how good that farm was kinda my farm was a sports dynasty because they devoted their entire effort to raising and racing horses and their Kentucky Derby success is phenomenal it's unknown and racing over a period of time maybe 25 years Calumet has to be considered maybe the best dynasty that Sports has ever produced built in 1924 as a harness stable by baking soda magnate William Monroe Wright Calumet farm was converted to thoroughbreds upon his death seven years later by his son but at capitalism was his father's first passion Warren Wright at a different dream he wanted to do in horse racing what he had done in the world of baking soda mr. Wright was a perfectionist people would say how do you get along with mr. Wright I hear he has a terrible temper I said he doesn't show his temper unless you are not doing what you're supposed to be doing I had a feeling he was a rather miserable human being to live with it for any extended period of time but if you were working for him towards a goal you could probably have just about anything you wanted Warren Wright was a very cold man he was a businessman he expected a lot he wanted to win the Kentucky Derby Warren Wright was a great man in making baking powder and the wedding of he may have been very knowledgeable about racing but I think his great thing was picking Ben Jones and then Jimmie Jones having won the 1938 Kentucky Derby as co-owners of a horse named Lauren the father-and-son training team provided part of the base for Calumet Sucher dynasty people are born with a feel for horses and know what they can do and how to handle them and how to train them and the Joneses were far away ahead of their class there for many many years when my son wanted to become a trainer I had said well in one place ago as we came in for was better Jimmy Jonas they didn't coddle their horses and if the horse was capable of running near Anam and where the money was there on the line they sent the horse that can bring it home but even more than good training it is breeding that makes champions and Warren Wright was blessed with the eye of a great matchmaker early in World War two he purchased citations mother-to-be in europe then transported her the long way around the world to avoid German u-boats that were sinking American freighters in the Atlantic in Kentucky the mare hydroplane 2 met the male of her future and Calumet breeding shed the reason the dynasty was what it was was not necessarily through the cumin of Ben Jones or Jimmy Jones his son the reason for that dynasty is they had a sperm factory at kademan farm that was second to none and it was all based upon the genetic gift that was given to the great bully people just wanted to breed to him he had the bloodlines that snared their interest for their bearers as long as bullies ability to to sigh remain strong they were dominant when bullies blood started thinning out so did it all the Calumet progeny with 58 stakes winners and 6 thoroughbreds rated among the best 100 of the century to his credit bully ranked among the best studs in racing history in 1941 one of his sons whirlaway experienced a shaky start with a certain jockey also destined for greatness Eddie Arcaro was terrifying a world away and Ben Jones to get Eddie's confidence back one time said I'm gonna put this blinker on and I'm going to sit on this pony and you take whirlaway and you go between the pony and the rail and me and go straight in Asia I don't think so Ben and he said got my word it'll work or Karen says well if he's game enough to sit there on that pony well I'm going at him I'm game enough to try it and send it right through that hole in that workout went on won the Derby in 1941 whirlaway gave Warren write his first Kentucky Derby victory then went on to become Racing's fifth Triple Crown winner thus began a decade-long dominance of racing that included three more Derby winners but the largest jewel in Calumet scrout was not born until 1945 the racing world grieved when the great thoroughbred Manowar died in November of 1947 but a certain Calumet colt was running in his hoof prints I do have a good recollection of being in a stable area one morning talking to Jimmy Jones and asking him if he had any particularly tea roads they really liked and he does not like this one real well he says I think he's going to do okay said his name is citation I think it ben jones sums up better than anybody he said that there were two things that made citation a great horse he said he had more televisions with anything a horse she'd ever been around and he'd set his own pace or a come-from-behind citation was very spare in using his genius he was not the kind of a horse who was going to win off by you know four dozen lates but when he got to the lead he settled and when he turned for home and he had a bead on the wire if you were in trouble he was a mammoth individual with tremendous athletic appearance and he had great charisma don't walk up with a camera because he would pose like he always knew he was good winning his first five races the two-year-olds early success was not all that remarkable in a barn crowded with winners Calumet had so many good horses every year they was hard to keep them separate so they frequently faced one another in stakes races and calumet love nothing better than sweeping races in August at the Washington Park Futurity in Chicago citation was just one of three Calumet entries I run three horses in the race B which unbeaten citation unbeaten and free America tied total boys I didn't won whipped that was one of the most dominant entries that ever appeared in racing at that time B which had won seven in a row citation was unbeaten in five races and free America had lost one out of floor so those three horses went out and they finished one two three but bewitched in front and afterwards both jockeys of the second at their place were sick yeah I put up one Jimmy Jones had told the jocks whoever's in front on the turn just go ahead and win it the others don't you know don't try to run past unless an on team horse comes along riding high and wide Calumet racing stock wintered in Florida in February of 1948 citations main competition in the Seminole handicap was armed the 1947 horse of the year Jimmy Jones still made that he first was aware the citation was a great horse in February of his three-year-old year they wanted to run him to get him ready for the Flamingo so they ran him against older horses citation went in at a three year old and beat the older horses he was that kind of a horse citation came out join seven furlongs in 123 the fastest time of the season Ilia Park would be like a high school football sensation graduating from high school and the next season playing for the Green Bay Packers and being an all-star the first they probably thought Ben Jones was crazy running a three-year-old against older horses but up till that time nobody would do it because you figured I don't have a chance you're not seasoned enough not mature enough citation could do anything he beat those horses and didn't have any problem doing it citation distinguished himself against over the horse that's when they knew the real shot at the Triple Crown citation stayed on the Derby Road winning the Everglades handicap and the Flamingo stakes with 12 victories in 13 races the horse called big sigh was also building a reputation for his young jockey al Schneider in 1948 Alice Nider was undoubtedly within the top 5 jockeys in the United States he'd gotten hooked up with Jimmy Jones during citations 2 year old year and Snider Road citation 9 times and he never lost on he was regular rider free cave at that time and he was headed into the greatest year of his career and I think he was as good as our Carroll dark Carroll and he was the master our signer was gonna be just good to him maybe better Jimmy said you know this is a great horse and you're gonna ride him all the way now the kid said oh cool but I got this big fishing trip I've got to go on first Slyder and two companions trainer Toby Trotter and Canadian businessman Don Fraser launched a 16-foot skiff from a power yacht some were off the Florida Keys to go fishing on the nearby flats was on March the 5th 1948 that can remember like it was yesterday the storm blew up turned very black the wind blew hard rain and it lasted just about an hour I've talked to people who live in the keys who fish in the keys and they say that this water especially if the wind comes up it could be very treacherous the fellows on the bigger boat figure well they're going to head to sans key for protection they were about a mile or a mile and a quarter away from the big boat but it didn't come back in and then got dark well then these guys on the boat started to get worried when the Seas had calmed Snyder and his companions were nowhere to be found the next day was begun a huge search by airplane and boat and the coastguard involved and this search went on for a couple of days it was almost a week until they found the skiff about ten miles south of Everglades City I saw the boat the boat was like brand-new there was no indication of anything that was wrong about the boat and aboard the boat they had swimming jackets and an anchor and everything that could have really got him to safety a piece of rope was about the only thing remaining on the boat it looked like it had been cut and the assumption from many were that they may have tied up to a piling and wrote out part of the storm there was a nifty gas can and maybe a water bottle but there was no trace of of any of the above the men I can't fathom nor could the guys that were on the yacht how these guys could disappear one minute they're watching in the binoculars the next minute it's dark they can't see anything and they never come back this is the mystery without an adequate explanation for Snyder's disappearance rumors spread through the racing community that led some to believe that there was foul play involved and four months after al disappeared bottle turned up on Hallandale Beach with a note which read one dead please send help and it was signed palace several years later Ted a Kansan received the threat Ted was a very good jockey and Ted was told basically that if he didn't fix a race he would wind up like Al Schneider there was speculation and people attempted to bribe Schneider to lose races and everyone said the guy was completely on the up up that he would have refused they punished him for this this sounds to me crazy I don't think that the mob at that time was able to employ people that would work as Navy SEALs because that's what it would take to to take three people out of a skiff within sight of other boats and make them disappear I think it's just nuts all we could go by was what the reports coming from the Coast Guard and as to who was in the area and we never did come up with a real good story as to really what they thought happened the mystery surrounding Snyder's death was never solved loss of al slider Calumet Farms set its sights on Racing's greatest Rider three-time Derby winner Eddie Arcaro even though our carro had had ridden whirlaway for Calumet he was in no way a contract or automatic rider of Cali men horses but after this tragic event they did get him to ride the horse you're talking about the best rider that may have ever lived not a bad guy to pick up when you need a rider Eddie Arcaro is probably without equal as a jockey he is the Babe Ruth of jockeys but that ayer keroh did have a temper a flaming temper you might say he was a belligerent he was almost mean and race when he was starting out he had talent but he had a terrible temper and he was set down for a year for doing damage to another jockey he had been crowded coming out of the gate and he was mad all the way when he caught up with a fella he slammed him into the gate the stewards a system did you mean to harm II said no I meant to kill in the end great charisma and money and citation teamed up it was quite a spectacle they captured everybody's imagination Eddie Arcaro on citation was a horse into his worth ridden by a man who knew his worth when our Carowinds citation made their debut as a team in April 1948 their separate star powers were not aligned he came back to ride Chesapeake trial stakes hopped across and it really wasn't that much of a field but the horse ended up having to go out in terrible mud some say that citation didn't get off to a good start other people say he was forced out coming around the far turn into the stretch citation came on with a terrific rally but just as they were getting into the late stretch there was another worst food war out and took citation with him he shouldn't have lost but he was the best horse everybody knew it but he just happened to get beat by racing luck Shaggy's defeat of citation was on par with what upset had done when he beat man award I don't think even sag is owner and trainer expected Sagi to beat citation although arquero road citation to two victories in 11 days doubt about their compatibility lingered so much so that the buzz before the run for the roses was about another Calumet horse in the Derby his toughest opponent was his own stablemate coal town the real speedball a lot of people thought that the coal town was going to be good enough and fast enough to beat citation the Derby that's all her care was here coal town coltan he went to bed and he said bender what am i hearing about coal town am I on the right horse er had been said if I thought you should be on coal town you would be on coltan like greased lightning coal town a mile and a quarter classic ocurro says that they sprang from the gate and there was old coal town up ahead of him running away from the field he said in Colton kept getting smaller and smaller in the distance and Eddie thought I'll be darned I'm on the wrong horse coat I was quicker and he was leading until the far turn citation was moving up on him and it's a tough to stretch he got him in that from then on he just went right on by and citations doing it now he's pulling away from gold citations only horse I ever saw make three runs in the dirt our Carol rode him just like you driving a Cadillac he just push on the gas and he's lit up you push on the gas that up and when he pushed on the final push that was it he run back old town like it broke his leg in citation Seidel is Eddie Arcaro America's Outstanding jockey riding for his sport Kentucky Derby victory it wasn't born when citation won the Derby but Jimmy Jones told me it's just about determination and citation was the most determined racehorse that I've ever known after beating coaltown so convincingly in the mile on 1/4 Derby citation headed for the second leg of the 1948 Triple Crown the Preakness after he won the Derby in Bicol town I don't think anybody was too anxious to go on to Baltimore in clay especially in a shorter distance the horses that ran against him in the Preakness were they were counted out before they put the entry in the entry box there was no contest Eddie Arcaro on citation immediately go for the lead the horse just did what he had to do in the Prix de si he didn't have to run any faster didn't he this gallop the last with four weeks until the third leg of the Triple Crown at Belmont Park trainer Jimmy Jones surprised more than a few of his peers by entering citation in the Jersey stakes today they're always worried about tiring a horse will he make it to the Belmont will he be all tired out from winning the Derby and the Preakness citation ran in between the Preakness and the Belmont you'd probably be kicked out of the trainer's league if you suggested something like said today you might lose your jobs then Jones believed that the best training for a horse was in a race they raced horses they didn't train them as such I think he knew the horse probably need the race and I think that he just picked up the race keeping on it to get ready to go am I on ahead everything has been so easy for him he doesn't see why they shouldn't pick up a little bit more money down in Jersey you're still asking a lot go of my own a quarter mile and 3/16 of my own a half something your horses never done before just asking a lot of a horse but citation was not your everyday horse after winning the Jersey stakes citation was trailered to New York's Belmont Park and while the great horse stood on the brink of racing history America was rediscovering its bright side during the war Gracie was cut out when it came back in the late spring of 45 after Germany surrendered people just packed attracts the baby boom was just sort of getting started people were trying to learn how to be you in beings again after World War Two a citation was one of the first great heroes he was just like Valentina ler Gable and he elicited passion from people who were interested in sports at that time citation was perhaps even more popular if you can imagine that and Secretariat because in fact Asians day greater percentage of the public focused on thoroughbred racing citation was the first great horse to be on television not a war after I was only in flickering movies and citation made many people think about racing because people who don't bet or go to the races can be caught by the nature of the great animal part of America still had street cars pulled by horses and so they related to horses in a way that we don't do as much anymore citations popularity swelled with each tick of the hour before the Belmont Stakes by post time the nation was focused on the odds-on favorite our Cara was so confident he unknowingly tested the winds of fate our Carroll now has a horse that is one two thirds of the Triple Crown and he has no reason to believe that he won't win easily and we responded by saying the only way I can lose this race is to fall off the horse they see citations come so what happens horse falls out of the gate ghost with knees our Carroll comes up out of the saddle is able to gymnastics himself back into it I think his thoughts at the time he came out of the gate and the horse stumbled and he went over it would say to himself why the hell did I say that but big sigh gathered his legs and hit his stride taking the lead at the quarter Pole passed the first mile marker along the backstretch it still citation pounding ahead of the rest of the thoroughbred it really did seem as if somehow the rest of the field had run into a wall and he went through a door in the stretch to the wire he's eight lengths ahead of a light galloping easily he's headed for his twenty three in 25 starts and the pot of gold at the finish citations Triple Crown was as easy as there's ever been probably the easiest Triple Crown has ever been they had six horses and the Derby four horses in the Preakness and then eight horses and development and I've had a lot of derbies with 1920 horses that start just in the dirt I don't think too many people were interested in running against on top of the racing world citation was not done not by a long shot as racing's 8th Triple Crown winner citation was in demand all over the country the rest of 1948 he didn't disappoint it seemed like no matter where you put him no matter what the service no matter where the track he just was going to find a way to win citation would being a clump of horses going around the first turn and then suddenly it was just they stopped and he went on he broke hearts by emerging this huge burst of speed and on Eddie Arcaro I just sort of galloped home on him with the rest of the field loving why that I would rather to start at all he'd just sort of start making it his own move by the time he got the quarter pole he'd be pulling even with the leader and then it just blow him away citation shows his class watch him move up along the outside Calumet farm thanks three-year-old take Scalia he could run on the front end he could run from behind he could start he seemed to be able to turn it on whenever it was necessary you could move him three or four different times in a race he was not a one run horse he was not a to run horse he was a four or five or six run horse citation was like Joe DiMaggio Joe DiMaggio never ran hard for a fly ball in his life he just seemed to be there when the ball came down this is the way it was the citation he was running hard and well all the time but he ran evenly and smoothly he would be Fred Astaire as opposed to Gene Kelly when gene was dancing you always saw the power in his legs and Astaire was just bouncing lightly around citation was Fred Astaire most racehorses have one great maximum effort in them some have two well apparently that didn't happen a citation he ran all the races he danced every dance and he did not get tired he did I get cramped he just kept winning getting from home many are Carol new records and citation takes it all in the by this time citation was getting as much ink in the paper as Babe Ruth would have during his heyday it was quite a glory day for the sport as well as Calumet this horse had his own private railroad car okay and his railroad car would be brought into someplace and he would be absolutely surrounded by photographers and people holding newsreel cameras and print reporters writing down his every step for my generation it's like when the Beatles came in by the end of the summer citation had won nine consecutive races saving his best for Belmont in the early fall that two year string was highlighted by four of the most remarkable days in the history of horse racing he won the Mallory is called the size of these things Belmont in midweek in that same weekend won the jockey club Gold Cup which was then around a two mile after Secretariat won the Belmont Stakes by 31 lengths in 1973 I asked Woodie Stephens how do you measure what we saw and he said the only thing I could measure Secretariat's performance against was citations for a run in 1948 with his winning streak at 11 citation was again running out of competition he annihilated older horses with such ease that when time came for him to run in the Pimlico special nobody took him up you could see that no one was getting ready to race against him for a week before the race they invited several horses but now they accepted the invitation our Carroll held him very strongly going all the way around the track and when he came into the stretch he just couldn't hold him anymore and he just let citation go and he went through the final 3/16 in something like 17 and fourth seconds which is extraordinary time and he did it running by himself by the end of the year citation a winner of 15 straight races stood alone by the end of his three year-old year he was a national hero because of what he did and the way he did it he never seemed to have anything at all that bothered him about the circumstances under which he had to perform the remarkable thing about citation Street was that where it was placed and since that it was being a must-win situation particularly with the Triple Crown and yet he sort of did it so easily this horse should have been dead tired but he wasn't he was such an Iron Horse here's a horse who in a period of two years not only when 27 of 29 but he also ran on 10 different racetracks he must add a heart that weighed almost 20 pounds huge of heart no doubt but other parts were weakening under the strain and citation follows the scenario winning by three and a half Lane after his last race of 1948 at a track called Tanforan it appeared that calumet had pushed its champion past his limits trainer Jimmy Jones discovered the iron horse was not fit a few days later he came up sore and eventually it was confirmed by a veterinarian that he had the same problem that should be suspected he did which is an Auslan and an Auslan is just a Horseman's expression for a calcium buildup and he did get enough Jimmy Jones treated the injury and rested him until further notice during the layoff Jones and owner Warren Wright were criticized for racing citation at Tanforan when it was revealed that the track had been in poor condition the Tanforan strip had boggy spots from a runoff on a hill and they had filled the Bobby spots with concrete to stabilize the track sir so in other words this tired but nevertheless gallant courageous noble horse was out there running on a paved highway by the time he might have been ready it was not worthwhile getting him to induration form and they skipped the whole year Jimmy very openly said I got greedy I went to the well one too many times I should have sent this horse on vacation after the Belmont here's a horse of 119 of 20 starts as a three-year-old swept the Triple Crown had he run as a four-year-old might have gone on and become the greatest racehorse of all time pain due to the injury sustained at Tanforan citation hit the track again in January of 1950 winning his 16th straight without it ever being said everybody really expected him to be the same old citation they had their fingers crossed when he came back he was a little bit diminished we still had the heart but didn't have all the physical qualities to go along with his heart the horse he reaches his peak is a four year old his five year old when he came back I think is a five year old they're going back a little bit what horses like citation miss a year and they gain weight when you return them to training you can never take off all of the weight proportionately that you put on and so you end up with a perfectly balanced running machine that is no longer perfectly balanced carrying up to 23 pounds more than his opponents citation one only once more as a five-year-old finishing second in his seven other races hampered by injury the most durable champion of his era was beginning to break down he just didn't get around as fluidly after his injury as he did before the injury we're talking about citation one at citation to a citation to was a very good racers but he was almost non peril in my opinion as a three-year-old the horse really didn't deserve to be on the racetrack at that point the difference between his record is a younger horse and an older horses like night and day but he wasn't a quitter no matter what the circumstances mr. Wright was ill he had cancer he was dying and the horse could become the first millionaire and that was something to keep mr. right going through the last days mr. right was on his deathbed you might say and he want him to try to win a million dollars because nobody had ever wanted she should have been whom he should have been breeding everybody in America one in the well may now that was the mentality then make this horse went million dollars Jimmy held him together long enough for him to win some important races but Warren Wright became obsessed with the magic of this great racehorse and he wanted them to keep him going as long as he could following the warren rice wish to become a millionaire citation lost a lot of races that he never should have lost with citation just 61,000 short of the million dollar mark Wright died in December of 1950 rested for 10 months citation returned in April of 1951 to fulfill his late owners host Jimmy Jones took the aging racehorse to California to run for the money in front of ever-increasing crowds everybody was rooting for him they wanted them to break the million dollar mark they thought that he could probably do it and he took charge the way the old citation did by July of nineteen fifty one only one rate stood between citation and the million dollar mark the Hollywood Gold Cup and there they go ten Perot breads for a mile and a quarter 100,000 he just opened up on him and you knew nobody was going to dead and the crowd really went crazy when he came across the finish line I tation wins to send his earnings more than 85,000 dollars over the million dollar mark you can't end your career any better than that it's like ending it with a Grand Slam or something here's a horse who missed the chance to go out gracefully who missed the chance to retire close on top of his game and still managed to go out of here oh when he went across the finish line nobody knew that that was going to be a slashed race but mrs. Wright said no he's done it that's enough but Jimmy said citation was just coming back into his own citation was retired to stud in 1951 it was not until 1973 three years after big-sized passing that another horse Secretariat won the Triple Crown I think that citation was the greatest race horse since Manowar and the greatest one until Secretariat 25 years later so ciation rightly is the landmark between Man O'War and Secretariat he probably was a bit underappreciated because Calumet had had so many great horses in the 40s that he can Achaemenid am ed champion had you been able to put Secretariat in 1948 and put citation in 1973 I'm confident citation today would be remembered every bit as affectionately as Secretariat somebody asked Jim Fitzsimmons what do you think of citation well he said citation is the best horse I ever saw and I saw a man award for citation of win 16 races in a row is a feat that ranks and sports with Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak for the Lakers winning 33 in a row it's superhuman when somebody said he might have been the greatest words that ever lived they have a legitimate re he might have been the greatest was it 19 for 20 speaks for itself Jimmy cannon once wrote about citation they went to citations grave today and played a bugle called the post / citation would break out of the ground and beat everything else that's around there's a lot of people and still feel that that's true you

Channel: Horse Racing

Views: 248,833

Rating: 4.7719917 out of 5

Keywords: CITATION, horse, racing, triple, crown, sports, century, greatest, win, streak, eddie, arcaro, documentary, calumet, farm, ben, jones, bull, lea, coaltown, jimmy, kentucky, derby, preakness, belmont, stakes, great, legend

Id: 1803k520Mi0

Length: 40min 48sec (2448 seconds)

Published: Fri May 18 2012