Twenty-five years before Secretariat moved "like a tremendous machine" in the 1973 Belmont Stakes, Citation did that for 10 months, powering through perhaps the greatest 3-year-old campaign in history. His trainer, Jimmy Jones, considered him the century's best horse, and although he was a bit biased, Citation's resume is otherworldly.
"At 3, Citation could fall down at the eighth pole and get up and beat any horse in the world," Jones said. "He could just do everything better than any other horse."
Fellow Hall of Fame trainers Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons and Max Hirsch also said Citation was the best they ever saw. They died before Secretariat was born, but as young men they had watched Man o' War.
