by Michael Tymn

Created on: January 20, 2009   Last Updated: June 25, 2009

It is as difficult to compare race horses from different eras as it is to compare baseball players from different eras. Comparing Man O' War, Citation, and Secretariat is like comparing Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, and Willie Mays. However, a strong argument can be made that Citation should have been judged as the greatest thoroughbred of the 20th Century rather than third greatest.

Since both Man O' War and Secretariat, the two horses that finished ahead of Citation in the Blood Horse magazine rankings, were both retired at the end of their three-year-old seasons, each with 21 races (Man O' War winning 20 times and Secretariat 16 times) it seems only fair that when comparing Citation with them, we consider only his record at the end of his three-year-old season, which was 27 wins in 29 races with two excusable second places. Percentage-wise, Citation had a much better record than Secretariat and is a shade below Man O' War. However, an argument can be made that Citation's record is just as impressive. Who knows if Man O' War would have won his next eight contests if he had raced as many times as Citation? It is said that Sam Riddle, Man O' War's owner, retired his horse when he did in order to avoid having his horse go against Exterminator, another great horse of that era.

According to his trainer, Ben Jones, Citation could have won his first loss as that was to his stablemate Bewitch when Citation was a two-year-old. Jones told Citation's jockey not to extend him if one of the two stablemates in the race was the only horse ahead of him. His second loss was in one of his first three-year-old races, to Saggy. In that race, Citation was boxed in and forced to go wide, coming up short in chasing down Saggy. In a later race, he easily outran Saggy.

Citation won races at distances from six furlongs to two miles. He beat Bolero, the world-record holder at six furlongs, and Miss Grillo, the world-record holder at two miles. Citation won on muddy tracks as well as fast tracks. He beat a number of other great horses, including Armed and Coaltown.

Unfortunately, Citation was injured at the end of his three-year-old season and was out of action for more than a year. He was returned to the racing wars at the age of five but clearly the long layoff cost him. He won only five of his final 16 races, finishing his career with 32 victories in 45 races

The decision to unretire Citation as a five-year-old so that he could become the first horse to win a million dollars has to be one of the great sports blunders of all time. Had he remained retired after his three-year-old season, it is likely that he would clearly rank ahead of both Man O' War and Secretariat as the greatest horse ever.

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