Word: loing
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...love you, papà," the son said in tears. "I love you papà." It would have been a touching farewell, if not for the fact that 32-year-old Sandro Lo Piccolo is a convicted murderer - and the dad he was being torn away from is the most wanted boss in the ever-powerful Sicilian Mafia. Top boss Salvatore Lo Piccolo and his son were captured together Monday morning in a small hamlet outside of Palermo in Sicily, a bust immediately hailed as a major victory for the Italian state in its ongoing battle against organized crime. Lo Piccolo...
...They decided on a 2-year-old gelding from New Zealand that cost $65,000 - a bargain in Hong Kong, where horses often go for four times as much. The punters named him Garden Party, but he was no party animal. For a year, Lo and his partners fronted the cash, close to $30,000, to stable Garden Party and pay his livery and training fees. But on the eve of the horse's first race, medical scans revealed he had a nonlethal cancer. He couldn't race in Hong Kong. Dismayed, Lo and his partners shipped Garden Party home...
...Their total investment of more than $130,000 was a total loss, but at least Lo was in good company. David Price, a horse trader based in Hong Kong, reckons that at least a quarter of the thoroughbreds brought into the city turn out to be financial black holes. He believes owners should pat themselves on the back if they're able to recoup a horse's livery fees through prize money. Snagging a champion horse requires lots of luck. "All the things in a [winning] horse - courage, constitution, the will to win - are things you can't see," says...
...While the unpredictability of a horse's racing form and the oft-inscrutable methods used to gauge it can befuddle dilettantes, good fortune can smile on the persistent. In 2003, following the Garden Party disappointment, Lo and his partners from various corners of Hong Kong's professional world - manufacturing, movies and modeling - located another 2-year-old gelding named Pocket Money in Ireland through a trainer's connections. They bought him and shipped him to Hong Kong. After two seasons with little consistent success racing the horse at various distances and in differing weight classes, they switched to another trainer...
...stables with his 5-year-old son to visit Pocket Money. Sometimes, the horse is sad and his son puzzles over the sprinter's mood. But the day after a Pocket Money victory, there are smiles all around. "You can see it on the horse's face," says Lo. "You know that he's proud." And that's a look any horse owner would say is priceless...