RIBALDO
Armando er cavallaro

This time he would win, it couldn't always go wrong for him.

His debt towards Giggi er cravattaro had already reached 5,000 euros and the funny thing is that Giggi had lent him, in several installments, just over 2,000 euros.

He entered the betting shop clutching a brand new 500 euro bill, with Giggi’s raspy voice echoing in his head …this is the last time I'm lending you this money, got it Armà? … it's the last 500, and if you don't give me back 5000 by the end of the month you're screwed... Ah… I don't care how you get them, at the end of the month I’ll come to collect 5000 …got it Armà?

Hi Armà, greeted him Bruno, a former ex-con, former gambler, former striker, former everything, down on his luck as well. Bruno the town crier, always ready to argue, to threaten, to intimidate.

But now he no longer intimidated anyone, he had reduced himself to asking a few euros from this one and that one, systematically pestering the mark of the moment, trying to give him a tip on the race, this one can't lose, put everything on it… and instead, they lost, oh if they lost …and nobody ever put 'everything' on it...

Hello Armà… what, you don’t greet anymore? Are you dazed or what?

…

this is the last time…

…and if you don't give me back 5000…

.. at the end of the month I’ll come to collect 5000 …got it Armà?

In Armando's head, Giggi er cravattaro’s voice was loud and clear, Bruno’s Hi Armà came from a distant little radio left on the window of a house on the 5th floor... but Bruno was just half a meter away from Armando and was the town crier.

Hey Brù… sorry I was just lost in thought…

Look at how I’m doing thought Armando …let me wash my face, now I'll get myself a coffee, smoke a cigarette and take it all, this time I'll take it all…

Armà! …Armà, will you give me a cigarette? Give me 20 cents, I’m missing 20 cents for a coffee…

Get lost Valterì!

Valter, 45 years old, former pizza maker. When his father died, he inherited a decent sum of money and took to the high life, abandoning the family home, his wife, his son, and his job.

He gambled away all the money within a few months, and when he tried to return home, he found the door closed. Another pizza maker had been found for his job.

He became homeless in a short time and continued to loaf around in front of the betting shop.

He practically lived in the betting shop and as time went by, his status as a beggar worsened.

Dirtier, drunker, more unpleasant… he shouted, was a nuisance, wet himself. But he was likable and after all, he was Valterino, the village fool, everyone knew him, no one denied him a smoke or some change for food, which he then ate for free because at ‘Mamma che pizza!’ he always found a hot meal.

He drank away the money.

this time I'll take it all…

Armando downed the scalding coffee and lit his cigarette. He was smoking so hard that even though it was only halfway, it was already burning the filter. I’ll take it all, for god’s sake…

It’s the first race of the afternoon here at the Grosseto racecourse! The race is 1200 meters, the ground is heavy, the horses are approaching the stalls. 3 minutes to the start!

The sharp and authoritative voice of the announcer came from the TV speaker like a whip crack and startled Armando who threw down the butt and quickly entered the room to study the board.

Okay… Golden Dubai is the favorite, and it's at 1.80… 8 horses racing… Flower Cris… is the second favorite… at 3.50… this one is good, it's fast on heavy ground and Grosseto has been raining for two days…

Then there were the other 6 horses but Armando had already decided: 500 euros on Flower Cris to win!

And so he did.

He positioned himself in front of the television, eyes wide open, heart pounding, arms crossed and locked, hands tucked under his armpits, as if he were in an invisible straitjacket; he looked crazy, but no one noticed him. After all, he was in good company in the room.

They're off!

Aluminum snaps to the lead and gains the rail, with Ciambotto taking its back. On the outside, starting from behind, the favorite Golden Dubai explodes onto the scene rapidly gaining ground… behind him, the second favorite Flower Cris!

Screen! SCREEN!!! Yelled someone …"screen" was when someone placed themselves in front of the monitor (the screen) and blocked the view for those behind.

…final bend, the horses are on the straight for the final rush!

The galloping horses pounded the muddy ground, kicking up clumps of wet earth into the air.

The powerful beasts were urged on by jockeys who lashed their flanks with crops and spurred them on vigorously towards the finish line, frantically working the reins connected to the bit.

At the final turn, down the final stretch, the horses abandoned the rail and ranged out in a fan at the finish line.

The burst of Golden Dubai! The favorite clearly surpasses Aluminum and charges towards the finish line and the only one that seems to keep its pace is Flower Cris who swerves to the right and attempts the pass!

Armando's heart was pounding, eyes glued to the screen, dry throat, cold and clammy hands, unable to speak.

Final 100 meters.

Golden Dubai is still leading but Flower Cris does not give up, on the contrary, he gains ground!

50 meters.

The horses are perfectly aligned, it's a thrilling head-to-head and they cut the finish line together! It's hard to say who won, Golden Dubai was in the lead till the end but right at the line Flower Cris's head seems in line with Golden Dubai's. The photo will decide the winner!

The hot comments from the racing enthusiasts started immediately: Golden Dubai won! …I don't think so if you look carefully Flower Cris covers it completely and… need to check the galloping times …it's possible they call it a tie… from the photo if you look closely Flower Cris sticks his nose ahead… yes but at Grosseto the camera is crooked so…

Armando followed the comments by quickly turning his head towards whoever was speaking.

God, let’s hope he won, let’s hope he won…

He left the room and lit another cigarette, moved about fifty meters away, he wanted to be alone.

It's a bad photo bad photo! With the bad luck I've got you'll see they'll give the win to Golden Dubai.

Pessimist.

Armà armà!!! Flower Cris won!!!

Really?

Yes!!! Come and see!!!

YESSS!!!! MY BEAUTIES!!!! I’LL SHOW YOU AMERICAAAA!!!!

Flower Cris had won, Armando collected 1,750 euros at the counter.

Armà armà… how much did you bet… 50? … 100? Give me two euros Armà so I can make a bet…

He already had two or three moochers on him but he paid them no attention… nothing… I didn’t bet anything… I only cheered because I was convinced I had lost…

The second race at Grosseto gallop, again 8 horses racing, Armando's attention focused on two particular horses but this time he couldn’t decide.

What if I tried the forecast?

The forecast paid three times the stake.

DJ Dream and Pink Parade.

Armando put the entire stake on.

The race was 1350 meters and halfway through the two horses were in the lead with at least a four-length advantage.

It hardly seemed real to Armando, he was winning without suffering, the best feeling.

In the final meters, the leading pair had slowed down, they had spent too much in the early split, the group was closing in more and more.

3 lengths ahead, two lengths, one length… half a length! Pink Parade had certainly won but second place came shockingly to Sussinco, a maiden from the Grizzetti stable, quoted at 30 to 1!

Really? Come on, really? I lost against a 30-odds horse? Really?

Another photo would decide second place and again the comments were divided.

He left the room immediately. It was raining, and the icy December wind hit his face as he walked briskly around the building.

I’ll take a lap around the building and then ask and if I won again, I won’t shout, nobody should know anything… I've got debts with Frappa and Travertino too… but they can wait…

Having completed the lap, he didn’t ask anyone because he couldn’t resist the temptation to look at the monitor, but they still hadn't given the results, so he continued to walk around the building.

Hey, I’m doing the 1,600 meters as if I were at Tor di Valle! he thought to himself, comparing himself to a horse circling the field, which produced a curious grunt that was supposed to be a laugh, but it caught in his throat, the hiccup pulling up a lump of phlegm, the offspring of thousands of cigarettes smoked in a lifetime as a horse racing enthusiast… he spat and continued walking …bad photo, this is worse than the other, I got lucky once, this time I think I lost…

Pessimist.

Armando had won once again.

First Pink Parade, second DJ Dream, third Sussinco.

Winning 2.20 – placed 1.60

Second place 2.02

Third place 4.25

Forecast 3.00

Combo: 185.67

Now, not only did he have 5,000 euros to pay back to Giggi er cravattaro, he even had 250 euros to spare, it had been since August, when he hit the trifecta at Varese gallop, that he hadn’t been in such a good place, debt-free and with money in his pocket.

Get out Armà…

Today, though, fortune is with me …imagine if I double these 5000 as well

Get out Armà, don’t push your luck...

Yeah but there’s no two without three… and when will I get the chance to double 5000 again…?

Yeah but if you lose?

The two voices alternated in his mind: the angel and the devil, Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, reason and gamble, fear and courage, or awareness and recklessness, the instinct for self-preservation and the impulse for self-destruction…

Because if I double, I clear all my debts and have 5000 euros left, this time I vanish for a couple of months, go detox in Brazil…

Yeah but if you lose you have to disappear, otherwise Giggi er cravattaro will make you disappear…

But he was a horse racing enthusiast, “Armando the horse racing enthusiast” and for ten years now he lived by his wits.

At 40 he had so many debts that he had to sell his house, his wife had left him, not before having him beaten to a pulp by his brother-in-law.

He had lost his job, he worked as a builder, or perhaps better to say that after 3 months in the hospital he returned to the site emptied, listless, when he showed up … because often he wouldn't go and not even phone to say he was sick or make up an excuse …and within another three months he was fired.

After that, 10 years of odd jobs, small scams, living on his wits, and he even boasted that he hadn’t ended up like Valterino because indeed the paths of life and defeat had been more or less the same.

At 50, he was still standing.

He didn’t bet on the third race of Grosseto, he left and reached the bus stop on foot, he was about to go home, to his elderly mother, the only person who hadn’t abandoned him and who shared her modest pension with him, a pension he, in turn, shared with the horses.

But he waited for the bus no more than two minutes …the bus isn’t coming, this is a sign… and he turned back.

Now you’ll see who Armando the horse racing enthusiast really is…!!!

He entered in a strange euphoria, every two minutes he put his hand on his pocket to feel the pile of money he had withdrawn, and he felt more and more confident, increasingly strong, he felt almost omnipotent.

Look who’s in the fourth… WILD SPEED! This one can’t lose! Fratini is riding it …it’s his, from his stable… this one can’t run with these other donkeys! And indeed it’s the favorite at 2… there’s also RIO SPEED quoted at 3, which is good, but WILD SPEED will eat it… I won’t bet the forecast because there’s also TIMANFAYA and IKRAAM that could place… but to win WILD SPEED wins there’s no doubt…

He bet 5,250 euros on WILD SPEED to win, it had dropped to 1.85, the clear favorite of the race …can’t lose…

It’s the fourth race of the afternoon here at the Grosseto racecourse! The race is 1200 meters, the ground is heavy, the horses approach the starting gates, here they are all in …they’re off!

LIVING DARFUR leads followed by IKRAAM, TIMANFAYA AND RIO GRANDE… After 600 meters TIMANFAYA takes the lead followed by RIO GRANDE, LIVING DARFOUR, and IKRAAM have no more to give… but here comes WILD SPEED, the favorite, arriving at double speed, RIO GRANDE accelerates and surpasses TIMANFAYA who is also overtaken by WILD SPEED who launches into the chase of RIO GRANDE!

Another thrilling head-to-head we are near the finish line and at the finish, it’s still RIO GRANDE holding half a length over WILD SPEED who perhaps started too late…

It’s still RIO GRANDE…

It’s still RIO GRANDE…

It’s still RIO GRANDE…

…

Ah… I don't care how you get them, at the end of the month I’ll come to collect 5000 …got it Armà?

Got it Armà…?

Got it Armà…?

Armando left the shop, didn't feel anything anymore, hands in pockets, cigarettes finished, money gone, everything gone.

Got it Armà…?

Everything gone, this time it was over.

He turned right towards the bus stop but walked past it as if he wanted to go home on foot.

…this is the last time I'm lending you this money, got it Armà? … it's the last 500, and if you don't give me back 5000 by the end of the month you're screwed…

Got it Armà…?

He passed beyond the intersection, didn’t feel anything, didn’t feel cold, didn’t feel the wind or the rain, didn’t feel hunger or thirst or desire to smoke, didn’t feel anything.

He didn’t even hear the horn and the screeching brakes of a big car that hit him and dragged him for at least 100 meters.

He still had one hand in his pocket, a pocket that had held, for less than an hour, more than 5,000 euros.

Face down, face on the asphalt, eyes wide open, in a pool of blood, Armando was dead and Giggi er cravattaro had lost 5000 euros.