"Watch Out, LeRoy!"

Citation, the wonder horse, was rarin' to go, but his rider wasn't. Both were getting daily diathermy treatments; the horse for an old hip injury and Jockey Eddie Arcaro for a recent and painful dislocated shoulder. Muttered Eddie: "I can't hit a horse or anything." But rather than let another jockey ride Citation in last week's $25,000 Sysonby Mile at Belmont, Arcaro got a shot of novocaine in his lame shoulder and climbed aboard. If worst came to worst, he decided he could whip with his left hand.

The worst didn't have a chance to happen. The diathermic duo was in fourth place, six lengths behind such high-caliber swifties as Spy Song and Coaltown (a stablemate), when suddenly, as if stung by bees, Citation shot ahead. In one brief explosive burst he catapulted past the leaders. Said Arcaro later: "I never hit him. I never even clucked to him. All I did was look ahead and see that LeRoy Pierson, on Coaltown, was blocking the way. So I yelled 'Watch out, LeRoy!' It must have been the password."

Three days later, in what looked like the toughest test of Citation's career--the twomile, $100,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup --Arcaro was prepared to try out the magic words once more. This time he didn't even have to speak. He took the big mahogany-colored horse to the front at the start. Citation won by eight easy lengths, in the longest distance he has ever run.

It was Citation's 23rd victory in 25 starts (including the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, Belmont, American Derby), and boosted his earnings to $744,650, third highest in history. There had never been another horse like him since Man O' War, and plenty of horsemen were arguing that he was the best ever.

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