Citation was among several promising Calumet Farm youngsters who became the top 2-year-old colt of 1947. Cigar never raced as a juvenile.
Citation captured the 1948 Kentucky Derby en route to sweeping the Triple Crown, starting a 16-race winning streak that included defeating older horses. Cigar won only two of nine times as a 3-year-old, running mostly on the grass in 1993.
Cigar lost his first four races in '94 and was switched back to the dirt, where he started his 16-race winning streak. Citation didn't race as a 4-year-old because of injuries.
Cigar earned nearly $10 million in his lifetime, more than $9.3 million during the 22-month winning streak that ended Aug. 10, 1996. Citation only made a little more than $1 million, with nearly $650,000 earned during his 21-month winning streak that ended Jan. 26, 1950. Both champions have one thing in common -- they are immortalized in sculptures at South Florida tracks. The Citation statue, crafted by fourth generation Italian sculptor Thomas Famiglietti, was unveiled in January 1965 at Hialeah Park, where he won four races. Cast in a foundry at Florence, Italy, and two years in the making, the statue stands on a marble base in the center of the lily pond by the paddock on the clubhouse side.
The Cigar statue, created by artist Cindy Wolf, was unveiled on Feb. 2, 1997 at Gulfstream Park, where he won four races. Sculpted in Kentucky and less than a year in the making, the statue stands in the Garden of Champions in the north paddock area behind the grandstand. Track announcer Tom Durkin presided over the ceremony, which included a tribute by actor John Forsythe, a racing enthusiast.
Last spring, Hialeah officials announced they were setting up a Wall of Fame a half-century after Citation won the Flamingo Stakes.
The inductees, in addition to Citation, were the trainer and jockey who guided him during most of his career: H. A. "Jimmy Jones" and Eddie Arcaro.
Jones, who also accepted a plaque for Citation during the April 2 ceremony, said: "He was such a pleasure to train. Citation was the greatest."
Robert Arcaro, accepting the plaque for his father who passed away last fall, echoed the same sentiments for his dad: "He had the highest regard for Citation. He said there were none better than the Jones Boys (father Ben and son Jimmy)."
Ironically, Arcaro wasn't aboard Citation in the '48 Flamingo. Jockey Al Snider was.
Citation only lost once that year in the Chesapeake Trial at Havre de Grace.
"Al Snider was going to ride for us," Jimmy Jones recalled three
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