TIME

June 21, 1948 12:00 AM GMT-4

If there was any doubt left, Citation proved last week that he is a great race horse—probably the greatest since Man o’ War.

He stumbled at the start of the $100,000 Belmont Stakes, but that only lent a touch of showmanship to his performance. An ambitious upstart named Faraway ran with him for seven furlongs before Citation killed him off. Once out front, Jockey Eddie Arcaro let Citation roll. He won by eight lengths—and became the eighth horse in history to win the triple crown (Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont). His time for the mile-and-a-half, 2:28 1/5, equaled Count Fleet’s for the swiftest Stakes ever run. Said Arcaro afterwards: “Too bad I didn’t know that.

1 might have let him run for a couple of more jumps at the head of the stretch.”

Citation has won more money in today’s inflated market ($544,700) than any horse before him at his age. Would he be another Man o’ War? It was too soon to tell. But Arcaro, who last week became the first jockey ever to win the triple crown twice, wasn’t selling Citation short. Said he: “What a horse! He’s terrific. I still don’t know how fast he can run.”

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