On This Day...

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Photo: The Blood-Horse Library

Calumet's legend bearer Citation.

Calumet Farm's Citation owned Hialeah like few other horses have. He started there four times in February his 3-year-old season in 1948 and won all four. Competing against older horses or 3-year-olds, it just didn't matter.

Citation started against his elders, including stablemate Armed, the reigning Horse of the Year, in his first two appearances. He got the ball rolling with a score on Groundhog Day in the aptly named Ground Hog purse, with Armed unplaced. For the Feb. 11 Seminole Handicap, Calumet covered the bases even more by adding Faultless, the previous year's Preakness winner, to the lineup. Citation had no problem beating them and the others, winning "cleverly," according to Daily Racing Form.

Back against 3-year-olds, Citation captured the Feb. 18 Everglades Handicap over two rivals, then the Feb. 28 Flamingo Stakes by six lengths. The Flamingo time, 1:48 4/5, was three-fifths of a second off the track record.

"The Flamingo Stakes confirmed, rather than added to, what we already knew," Joe Palmer wrote in The Blood-Horse. "I suspect Citation is a great horse; if he isn't, he's very near the top."

What no one could have known was that Citation was in for a tumble in his next start.

Click here to read more about this Thoroughbred Legend in Citation -- available now from ExclusivelyEquine.com.

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