Meet Ronny Kleinberg
This is my life. My name and the names of the people and places have been changed for obvious reasons, but the incidents and experiences described all happened. This is real life, not a phony Hollywood version that demands things be packaged in a neat familiar framework with no loose ends. My life is full of loose ends, and many of them are still walking around.
To understand my story you have to understand the underlying principles that formed my personality, and guided me through a dangerous underground existence that reeked of corruption, greed, and danger. As a Jew whose parents survived the Nazi concentration camps I learned life is fragile, and survival arbitrary. As a jockey I developed an approach to life of living in the moment, of pushing the envelope, of reacting first, because not reacting can cost you the race, or maybe your life.
Jockeys are modern day serfs that travel the country picking up rides where possible, for the most part earning scraps, guaranteed to be seriously injured. Did I bend the rules? Yes. Did I break many of them; most certainly, because that’s the way the game is played. Horse racing is a microcosm of society where the rich get richer, and the rest of us do what needs to be done to survive. Don’t fall for that nonsense that everybody can be President or Prime Minister, that anybody can be the next Steve Jobs or Warren Buffet. To be blunt, that’s horseshit.
I did what I had to do to survive, and I make no apologies for it. I knew wise guys, even my best friend was one, but I was wise enough to know, that’s a dead end, especially for an outsider. And I knew I would always be an outsider, a Jew, a jockey, and a fixer. So this is my story, it’s not a journey wrapped in a nice neat package, it’s life as it really is, raw, crude, and dangerous. This is my life; it’s how I lived it; I hope you enjoy it, and maybe even get a few laughs out of it.
Enjoy,
Alias Ronny Kleinberg
Зміст
Table of Contents
Prologue
Be Careful Who You Screw
Part I:
The Formative Years
Deaf and Dead
The Camps: Just Don’t Stumble
Don’t Mess With The Little Heb
Cabbage Town
Part II:
The Jockeys
A Close Call – The Machine
Welcome To The Sport of Kings
The Game Is Don’t Get Caught
Payback’s A Bitch
The Double Double-Cross
Thank You Black Beauties
The Mudder
Seeing Red
Different Strokes For Different Folks
A Middle American Pit Bull
The Wrong Place At The Wrong Time
Some People You Shouldn’t Fool With
Dually Noted
The Almost Union
Part III:
The Gamblers, Gangsters and Crackpots
Killer Chickens
One Crazy White Boy
Two Cops, A Gangster, And A Hawaiian
A Shot In The Ass
The Cuban
What Twenty Thousand Buys
It’s Not Always Skeletons In The Closet
Not Quite Routine
Bobby The Bug Man
Take Your Medicine Like A Man
You Win Some And You Lose Some
Part IV:
The Veterinarians, Trainers and Agents
Daryl, The Horse Doctor
Daryl’s Damaged Horse Power
Disorder In The Court
Like A Bee Is To Honey
Oh Brother!
Daryl Versus Tesio
Who Owns The Moral High Ground?
Not All FBI Agents Are Mormons
Mission Accomplished
Get Out Of Town And Don’t Come Back
Running A Ringer
Punch Drunk Agent
Rich, Cheap, And Stupid
I’m No Rat
Part V:
The Women
And So It Starts
Annie Get Your Son
Unlucky In Love
Crazy Bitches Part One
Crazy Bitch Part Two
You Gotta Know The Password
You Don’t Have To Be Married To Be Screwed
Eventually You Learn Your Lesson
The Contest
Part VI:
More Than Just Horses
Doctor Death and The Picture
The Kentucky Standoff
Smooth Operator
Bonus Material
Ten Things You Need To Know To Win At The Racetrack
Ten More Things You Need To Know To Win At The Racetrack