Dr. Francesco Varola, an international attorney in real life, is better known as Franco Varola in racing and breeding circles all over the world as a student and researcher on the Thoroughbred.In this latter field, he started literally from childhood, following his father"s racing stable at Milan in the late twenties and early thirties, during which period he could also watch closely the late Federico Tesio"s operations, which led to Nearco shortly before World War II. Later on, he rowed for the University of Rome and became a pupil of the famed D"Inzeo riding school, besides starting to write regularly for racing papers at the age of seventeen, when he became possibly the youngest member of his profession in Europe.