Arcaro Wins the Triple Crown.

Arcaro Wins the Triple Crown. Few jockeys have the skill or luck to guide their horses to victory in the three races known as the Triple Crown, but Eddie Arcaro accomplished that feat in both 1941 and 1948. Arcaro's 1948 ride to victory upon Citation in the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont Stakes is chronicled here. . Arcaro Wins Triple Crown Once while caddying golf, Eddie Arcaro had trouble locating several shots. The irritated golfer said, "Kid, drop that bag and go home. You'll never make a caddy as long as you live. A little runt like you ought to be a jockey." Never has an insult turned into a better piece of advice. Arcaro became quite a jockey. His accomplishments reached a peak in 1948 when he rode Citation to the Triple Crown of horse racing--winning the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes--and in the process became the first jockey to take the Kentucky Derby four times and the Triple Crown twice. Arcaro learned that the best way to move through the field was to squeeze his horse through the pack, an aggressive style that caused him to fall more than a few times. Arcaro also developed his own set of techniques for using the whip. While many riders whipped their horses repeatedly, he applied the whip judiciously, often simply waving the wand in front of his mount. Arcaro, who weighed 51 kg (112 lb), won more than 100 races a year in the 1930s. He rode Lawrin, at 9-to-1 odds, to the 1938 Kentucky Derby title, and in 1941 he guided Whirlaway to the Triple Crown. He won his third Kentucky Derby in 1945 atop Hoop Jr. A tragedy led to Arcaro's jockeying Citation in 1948. Jockey Al Snider, the horse's regular rider, was set to guide the horse in the Kentucky Derby in May. In March, however, Snider drowned in a fishing accident in Florida. Arcaro, a close friend of Snider, called Ben Jones, Citation's trainer, to ask if he could jockey the horse. Arcaro, however, had angered Jones earlier in the season when his mount collided with one of Jones's favorite horses in an important race. Arcaro vowed if Citation won, he would split the jockey's share of the winnings with Snider's widow. Jones agreed. Rain fell hard in Louisville, Kentucky, on the morning of the Derby, May 1, 1948. When the race card began at 11:30 AM, however, the day was hot and muggy. Track conditions gradually improved while 100,000 people jammed Churchill Downs to see horse racing's biggest event. Citation, one of just five horses in the field and one of the smallest to run the race in 40 years, was the favorite at 2-to-5 odds. The other highly regarded horse in the field was Coaltown, also trained by Jones and, like Citation, a product of Calumet Farm of Lexington, Kentucky. Coaltown, jockeyed by Newbold Leroy Pierson, led in the first eighth of a mile and in the backstretch. Citation remained in second. As the horses rounded the turn for the homestretch, however, Citation pulled even, galloped into the lead, and coasted to victory. No other horse contended. Arcaro, according to the New York Times, was "the most jubilant little man in these United States when he returned to the jockeys' quarters." The race was Arcaro's fourth Kentucky Derby win in nine attempts. "He's great," Arcaro said of Citation. "He'll win the Triple Crown." The victory earned Arcaro widespread acclaim. Time magazine featured Arcaro in a long article in which he explained his successful riding techniques. "You've got to make the horse think you're part of him," he said. "You sit right tight and dig your hands into his neck. And when he drives, you drive, and when he comes back you come back with him. That's the only secret I know about helping a horse, and it's no secret." Two weeks later Arcaro and Citation confronted the Preakness Stakes, the second leg of the Triple Crown. As at Churchill Downs, the Pimlico track in Baltimore, Maryland, was damp. Rain had fallen hard the day before the race. Although sunshine and wind on race day improved the track's conditions, Arcaro demonstrated that Citation was the class of the field, regardless of track condition. Citation, the overwhelming favorite at odds of 1-to-10, came out of the gate first, pulled ahead by two lengths on the backstretch, and romped to the finish six lengths ahead of the second-place horse, Vulcan. Arcaro used the whip only twice: at the entrance of the backstretch and just outside the eighth pole. According to the New York Times, "Citation got the idea, and kept pulling away from the others through the final yards." The final race in the Triple Crown was the Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park near New York City on June 12. Arcaro and Citation again won handily. "This Citation was a horse apart from anything else I had ever ridden," Arcaro wrote in his autobiography. "His stride was frictionless; his vast speed alarming." Citation continued to win race after race, but by the end of 1948, injuries kept the champion from racing for more than a year. Arcaro accumulated more victories in 1948 on other horses. He rode 188 winners in 726 races for a winning percentage of 26. The horses he mounted that year won a total of $1.68 million. Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.