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Originally Posted by Kasept
Where does that put stablemate Bewitch?
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Citation won 28 of his first 30 starts, all but one of which took place during his 2- and 3YO seasons. One of those defeats came in the Chesapeake Trial, a six-furlong prep that was run five days before the Chesapeake in mid-April 1948. It was Arcaro's first ride on the horse and, so goes the story, he did not want to beat the heck out of the horse to win a six-furlong prep race. History tends to treat this as an astonishing upset, forgetting that the winner of the race had a demonstrated affinity for this track, having set a world record winning a stakes race there at 2. The other time Citation was defeated in this span of time came in the 1947 Washington Futurity, a race won by stablemate Bewitch.
It was a blanket 1-2-3 Calumet finish and Bewitch, who was undefeated and winning her eighth straight (and sixth stakes), was considered the stable star 2YO. Citation, at that point, had run in only one stakes event.
Jimmy Jones is supposed to said (years after the fact), "We kind of figured our horses could take the first three places, so we told the riders before the race we'd split the fees three ways between them and whoever was in front should be allowed to win it without anybody whipping anybody to death."
Naturally, all three riders said that their horse could've won easily.