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Citation is a horse who needs plenty of work. If he doesn't get it, he almost kicks the slats out of his stall. Rather than burn up the energy in morning workouts, Trainer Jimmy Jones decided last week that it was more profitable to give Citation his work in the afternoon. Jones entered the wonder horse in the $50,000 Stars & Stripes handicap at Arlington Park, Ill., his first race since winning the triple crown (TIME, June 21). It was only Citation's third race against older horses, easily the toughest handicap field he had ever faced. He was giving away chunks of weight to seven of the other eight horses. And no three-year-old had ever won the 20-year-old Stars & Stripes.

For the first half mile, Citation lagged in fifth place. Knockdown, a hard-luck horse flown from the East for the race, set the pace most of the way. Then Jockey Eddie Arcaro, usually a spare-the-whip man with Citation, really let him have it (said he later: "I've hit him once or twice before in all the other races. Never hit him like this"). Going into the far turn, Citation started to move up. Arcaro brought him up on the outside, sacrificing ground to avoid jamming. (Said Eddie: "I had plenty of horse under me when I moved up, but he got a little tired. He didn't have anything left at the end.") Even so, Citation finished two lengths in front. His time tied stablemate Armed's track mark (1:49 1/5) for the mile and an eighth. And his winnings for the day raised his season's earnings to a one-year record ($427,020).

It was a victory a three-year-old could be proud of--but it had been too risky. Said Trainer Jones: "I think I made a mistake in letting Citation run . . ." Next fall, Citation might be started against older horses again, in weight-for-age stakes. But for the time being Citation would take fewer chances with his laurels.

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