The fat envelope: Part 1

Rick Rerenzela, he's no longer with us. Some long term listeners will have heard about him in the past because after he died, we went to town on talking about him. In fact, I think we suggested that at his funeral that someone checked the coffin to make sure that he was in it. That was an exaggeration, but it gives you an insight into the sort of person Rick Rensela was and He was described by a colleague of mine once in print as a man of many parts, most

of them stolen, which was another great description. Rick Renzella's real name was a Vittoria Rensela, and he would have grown up as a little boy in Melbourne, speaking Italian at home and English at school, and he would have been one of that generation of migrant kids who had to do the best he could in all ways. And instead of working hard and becoming an honest person in business or in professions or trades, he went the other way.

And as a young man he saw the inside of boys homes and jails, and he did a bit of time for crimes of dishonesty before he turned his mind to the sort of legitimate business of second hand car dealing and punting. Now these days, secondhand car.

the system, and indeed, for a while he did. And the story goes that one day he was out looking at his racehorses at his relatively small time trainers yard. His trainer was a guy called McNamara, Alan McNamara, and he trained a bit further down the Pen Highway, I think originally at mentone or that area, and had stables in his backyard. And one day, the story goes, Rick Renzella went outside and he patted a black horse, believing it to be his black horse code of Penn. It

actually wasn't. It was another black horse entirely. And I suspect that that day Rick Renzella got the idea that if the owner of a black horse couldn't easily distinguish between it and another one, that looked a bit similar, then perhaps it would be a good way to pull a ring in to use black horses. And starting from that premise, mind you, Rick was pretty dishonest and pretty cagy and pretty cunning, so he wouldn't need much encouragement

to get involved in such a thing. He started to buy more black horses, and he had this good horse code of Penn, who was good enough to win races in town and to run placings in town. He was a pretty smart animal. And Rick bought more horses that were related to that horse. They were sired by, that is, fathered by a particular English stadion that was standing in Australia, a horse called I think King Tudor, and King Tudor

was known as a black horse. Often in racing they call him dark browns, but most of us would call him black. And he he wasn't a great stadient, He wasn't a great sire of winners. But he did throw a lot of horses that looked like himself. They were black or dark brown, they didn't have any or much white hair on them, and they tended to look a bit like each other. So you know, if he had a slightly Roman nose, so did many of his progeny.

He was quite a dominant sire in that sense, and so Rick bought quite a few progeny of that stadient, and he bought ones that did look like each other. And only one of them was the good horse code of Pen. The others were relatively ordinary animals. One was called Briander Hall, one was called Damien Park, who was a full brother of code Pen. He was so keen on them he actually bought both King Tudor and joy Gay, that being the sire and dam that his father and

mother of code Pen and Damien Park. And so he really ended up with his whole family of horses. He kept breeding and buying these black horses that looked like each other, and he had a motive, and his motive was to pull ringings, and that, of course, is the substitute one horse for another. Now, the person that told me the ins and outs of this story in detail is a former jockey called Stephen Wood, and Stevie Wood is an enormously well liked fella. He's now in his

early seventies. No one says a bad word about him, even the police who ended up prosecuting him and ultimately sent him to jail for defrauding the public. They actually liked him. He's an engaging fellow and for a guy who did do some dishonest things, he's actually a very honest sort of guy. And later on, interestingly, he did very well in business outside racing. But as a youngster he was a poor kid. His dad had been a jumping jockey who broke his neck riding over jumps and

had become an alcoholic and then dried out. But Steve was one of a big family of poor kids who grew up around Caulfield, and he just did the best he could. And when he was a very small boy, I think he was only thirteen, but they pretended he was older. He was apprenticed to a small time trainer who was quite a good trainer, quite a good man. But young Steve was small for his age, which is

why his parents thought he could be a jockey. And he was so young at this point that he was signed up as I suspect a fourteen year old or a fifteen year old, but he was actually a year younger. And so when he rode in his first race, which was in the city, would you believe he wrote in his first race at Mooney Valley against legends of the turf such as Roy Higgins and Harry White and all these great riders. He was so young that he hadn't

even hit puberty. And he told me he was so embarrassed in the jockey's room because he was a little, tiny kid who looked like a Grade six kid, and he went and hit in the toilets to get changed. Before his first ride, he'd only had a couple of jump outs. He'd ridden in a couple of trials down at the Epsom Track, I think it was, and on this occasion they just sent him out there to ride in a race, and he was terrified, he said he to this day cannot remember the first half of the

race how it went. Apparently his horse jumped out slowly because he was hanging onto its mouth. He didn't really know how to ride it well, and he nearly fell off and followed the field and it didn't look great. But time past, Stevie Wood grew up a bit. He started to win a few races and he would be sent to the country tracks and he would win a few races, and back in those days racing was not as big a an industry as it is now. They didn't race every day of the week the way they

do now. Back in those days, they would race a few meetings in the country on weekends. Of course, they would have a Saturday city meeting, and they'd have a midweek meeting, and they'd be the odd midweek meeting in the country. So most jockeys, the big good jockeys, would ride midweek in Melbourne Saturday Melbourne, not go to the bush much maybe where it be maybe Geelong, but not

too far. And the lesser lights, especially apprentices, would go to those country meetings, So they'd ride midweek at Baneala or Wangorada or Sale or Bensdale or wherever it might be on Saturday meetings at those same sort of venues, and little Stevie would picked up his act and he got to be a much better job. He tells me that his friend and contemporary Paul Jarman, was a star jockey. He was a bit older and a bit better, and he was a top writer who outrode his apprentice claim

while still an apprentice. He rode so many winners that he could no longer claim the weight allowance that apprentices get the other one at the time was his friend Lye Hope, who was a very good young jockey. But Steve Wood was probably running third or fourth behind those good guys, and so he made a bit of a name for himself. Stevie. You know, like all young jockeys, he grows up fast, he gets a bit heavier, and

he develops a few bad habits. His trainer that his boss, trainer was a guy who didn't drink or smoke and didn't like his apprentices staying out late or staying out running around with bad people and all the backslappers that get involved in racing. And Stevie got involved with going to parties and getting on the drink and chasing girls and all that, and his boss said that's no good,

that's no way to behave. I don't want you to ride for me, and being a smart ass sixteen year old little Stevie would decided that he would leave his boss and go and ride freelance. Now that was not a great decision. He should have pulled his horns in and done the right thing, but he didn't. And what happened was he went from being a pretty good city based apprentice who used to get some rides in town and win a few in town as well as on the country circuit. He ended up taking a job from

a famous old Bendigo train called George Daniels. George Daniels had been a lighthorseman in World War One and he came back to Bendigo. I think he had part of his foot shot off. He was probably a bit of a war hero really, and he trained both gallopers and trotters.

And I think if somebody bothers to look up the records, I'll find that George Daniels one not only group races, black type races with gallopers, notably the Great Sailor's Guide, a famous galloper back in the sixties, and he won group races with harness horces trotting horses.

pay your rent each week. It might have been twenty bucks back then it was enough to rent a house. Will guarantee you plenty of rides and therefore plenty of winners because you're a good country rider, and I'm happy to put you on all my best chances. And so when it gets to nineteen seventy one, Stevie Wood has been riding for maybe three or four years. He's at Bendigo. He's doing the best he can. He's riding a few

country winners. He's not as enthusiastic as he used to be because he knows he's sort of closed the door on being a successful city rider. And he gets a call this day from this trainer McNamara, who he didn't really know well, who said, I want to book you to ride a horse at Bendigo on Corfield Cup Day. Now, the big race meeting at Bendio on Corfield Cup Day was an annual event, attracted a lot of people, a lot of horses, and a lot of bookmakers, very strong meeting.

Stevie accepts the ride because, you know, why not. He's on a thing called Brianda Hall. He's never really hurt it. But he looks up the form and it's going to be a forty to one shot. It's not much good, you know, it's last start at ben nowhere and here it is in a stronger grade against better horses and it's basically the long shot of the field. I think it was forty to one. He says, yeah, yeah, right,

just for the losing fee. When he gets the races, it's just another thing he's going to do that day. He's not taking much notice when the trainer of Brianda Hall, Alan McNamara, comes into the jockey's room. He brings in the colors, the colors that you wear, the silk colors, and he's there to pick up the saddle from Steve Wood to saddle the horse. And this is a transaction that happens, you know, one hundred and twenty times at

every race meeting. Trainers come in, they talked to the jockey, say and the colors, they get the saddle, I saddle the horse. It's routine. But Stevie Wood notices that Alan McNamara is very nervous. He's stuttering and stammering and he's sweating and he can't sort of make it much sense. And Steve Wood sort of shrugs it oft and sins, well, work cares. This thing hasn't got a chance anyway. It doesn't really matter if he tells me how to ride it. It can't help. So he goes out and he gets

legged up. Now the funny thing is that Alan McNamara doesn't speak to him. It's the owner of the horse, a man called Rick Renzla, that Steve Wood had met once before, had ridden a winner for him at Banella, I think, up in the northeast. And he remembered that Rick Wenzella had paid him a big sling. He must have backed this winner in the northeast and at one and Renzala had slung him serious money, several hundred dollars, which was a lot of done in those days. It

was like getting several thousand dollars now. And so he was kindly disposed towards Rerenzala. But Renzella grabs him, leads him over to the horse Branda Hall, or the horse that is supposed to be Branda Hall, and Legimutin says, listen here, a little prick, you just jump to the front and it'll win easy. Just stay out of trouble. Jump to the front, stay out of trouble. It'll win easy.

At this point, Stevie Wood looks at the bedding toe to odds on the big board and it's you know, it's forty to one, and he goes, really, what makes you think that? Ranzela says, listen, just do it. I'll tell you words to that effect.

was probably a tactical error in some respects. It was a distant race. It was I think two thousand meters as we say now. And when he comes around to the head of the strait the second time, because it's a full circuit plus a bit. He said, I'm flat out hearing the other horses hoofbeats. Normally in a race, you can hear the other jockeys talking to each other, you can hear the hoofbeads, you can hear the whips, you can hear everything. He said, I'm out so far

in front that I can't hear anything. And I look over my shoulder and I realize I'm lengths in front. But my horse just keeps going. He said, I've got a lap full of horses. Jockeys say, it's a great feeling. You're in the straight in front and your horse is full of running. So I just let him stride along. And he said, I think it was a record margin that year. I think it won by twelve or fifteen lengths.

The horse wins, he goes in, picks up the that goes into to do correct weight, and he's called him by the stewarts as the trainer and the owner, and he wisely decides that he need not share with the stewards the information that the owner told him it would bolt in. And he says, I got no idea I just thought I was going around for the losing ride money and it went really well. I've got no idea why.

Of course, at the back of his mind he's thinking that these guys have hit the horse with a go fast drug, one of the early drugs that started to be used back in that era. And he's sure that it's a drug thing and that the stewards will be on the case. But he's puzzled because he realizes that it hasn't been backed. Of course, there's no sign that's went back. It won the race at forty to one, no money's gone on, and he thinks, well, it's a miss.

And Rick Renzela said to the stewart's last start, you know my horse here we got its tongue over the bit and didn't run well. It choked down, it couldn't gallop properly, and I was very confident today that it would go better.

money going on. Later on, Renzella talks to Steve Wood, and Wood says, well, I don't know much, but I know that if a horse starts at forty to one, you haven't put anything on it, and therefore nobody's got any money out of it.

it by the sound of it. So they get in the blue Pontiac that Rick Grinsela had at some stage earlier sold to young Steve Would and they drive down the road in this thing that's like a waterbed cross with a cabin cruiser, and they pull up at the address in Brighton, and it's a nice house in a street full of very nice houses, you know, doctor's lawyers, all that sort of stuff. And he goes in and there's missus Rinzale. She was a very handsome woman, beautifully dressed,

very polite. Da Da Da da da. And there's the trainer, Allan McNamara, looking much happier than he had at the races. And there's a guy called Rookie who was Renzale's driver, which is code for a bodyguard. And Rookie was a tough guy that Steve would actually got to like. He sort of liked him. And he said there was a guy there called Fred from Sydney. He said, I never knew his real name. He was just Fred from Sydney. Always had a gun under his arm, under his coat,

and he said I didn't like him at all. He was quite spooky. And there was a few others. He said it was a big car dealer there, well known car dealer that used to advertise cars on television at that time. He said, I don't know what he was doing there, but he was there, and a few other people. And at some point during the barbecue, Renzalez had a couple of bees, and he says, Stevie, you better come

over and talk to him in the office. So he leads him into the office in the house and into his study thing, and he says, you want to know what happened yesterday? He said, look at these pictures on the wall. And Wood looks at the wall and goes, oh, there's Code of Penn Flemington or whatever he did. And there's Code Pen again winning somewhere. And there's Brianda Hall at such and such, and there's Damian Park at such and such. These pictures, they're all black horses winning races,

and Werenzealous says, have a closer look. And he has a close look and he realizes it's all the same horse that in fact, there are supposed to be three different horses, and these photos on the walls, but only one of them is in each frame. In other words, these are ringings. And that is when the penny drops for young Steve Wood that it's a ringing, not a drug thing. And he said, but Rick, how did you get money out of it? You didn't back it, And Rick says, so I did, but I didn't back it.

On course, what I did was, you know what the of course daily double is with the tab and he said yeah. He said, well, what I do is I couple up my sure thing in the second leg with restarter in the first leg. I back each combination from the first leg with my horse in the second, and that way, no matter what wins the first leg. And you hope it's a longer shot. You hope it's at ten to one shot, not a hot favorite. We've got it in the second with a horse that no one

else in the world has backed. It's just an aberration. And so we scooped the pool and he said, I've got twenty six thousand dollars out of the pool yesterday. And in that year nineteen seventy one, a year that I sadly can remember, twenty six thousand dollars was the price of two good houses in a country town. And I mean by that a country town like Sale or Bensdale to Ragon not owe you no somewhere. And it was the price of a pretty good house and maybe

a car in outer suburban Melbourne. It was serious money that could change a young jockey's life, that sort of money. These days, the comparison houses are worth so much more now. But you know these days. You probably need to win three quarters of a million dollars or a million dollars to have the same actual effect on your life. Rinzala says, so you understand now, And Steve would says all right, and Rinzale says, now, I don't expect you necessarily to

want to stick with the crew here. But he's two envelopes and there's a thin one and there's a fat one. If you choose a thin one, that's great. You put it in your pocket and after today we don't worry about it. If you take the fat one, you're one of the team. And little Stevie Wood made a faithful decision. He took the fat one. I mean, he's nineteen or

twenty or whatever. I think they've got a little kid, and his wife's pregnant again, and you know, he's just young and a bit silly and like most of us, a big greedy. So he took the fat one, and being a jockey is a risk taket. They have another sausage and a beer, and he and his wife hop in the car for the long trip back to Bendigo. And they hop in and they drive around the corner

and they pull up. He said, we've got to open that envelope, and he tears it open, and his wife, who was a very respectable young woman who was well brought up and didn't swear, she said, shit, shit, shit. She'd never seen so much money as was in this envelope. Now, it must have been in the thousands, like two or three or four or five thousand dollars. It was serious money, and the sort of money that would pay their rent for two years, and you know, give him a deposit

on a house, whatever it might be. And so they put the envelope in the glove box and they drifted Bendigo, and this is how it started for Stevie Wood. He

becomes Frinzella's race stage jockey in the Ringings. Looking back on it, the choice to take the fat envelope not the skinny envelope was the one that derailed his life because by making that choice, he actually handcuffed himself to a very bad and violent man, Rickrenzla, Because later on, when he did want to pull out, did say to Lorenzla, I don't think you can get away with doing this

for this reason, it's too risky. For that reason, Renzilla turned nasty snarled at him and said, listen, I can't guarantee that you won't end up dead up an alley or floating in the era. And that is when Steve would realize that he was in too deep and it was safer to go along with somebody like Wensella then to go against him. Next episode, we're going to look at how Stevie would got more deeply involved in dishonesty and race rigging until eventually he was in so deep

he couldn't get out without going to jail. Thanks for listening. Life and Crimes is a Sunday Herald Sun production for true crime Australia. Our producer is Johnty Burton. For my columns, features and more, go to Heroldsun dot com dot au, forward slash andrew rule one word. For advertising inquiries, go to news podcasts sold at news dot com dot au. That is all one word news podcasts sold And if you want further information about this episode, links are in the description. Five