against the competition of Milanese indus-
trialists. The stable was henceforth known
as Dormello-Olgiata, the latter being Don
Mario's estate near Rome.
During the war Don Mario brought his
family and horses to his father-in-law's es-
tate here in Tuscany—where training gal-
lops had been laid out in the first years of
the century.
It is the Turf's great fortune that Don
Mario not only funded the singular genius
of his partner but also gave it such elegant
expression in a classic memoir of Tesio and
his wife Lydia. It is Don Mario, in fact,
who came up with the immortal formula
routinely (but mistakenly) ascribed to
Tesio, concerning the "piece of wood" that
determines selection in the Thorough-
bred: namely, the winning post at Epsom.
To spend even a few minutes with Don
Mario's son, then, represents a privileged
window into Turf history. For the octoge-
narian Marchese Nicolò Incisa della Roc-
chetta remembers the Tesios very well
from boyhood.
"Donna Lydia was always very nice with
us children," he recalls. "She didn't have
children herself, and treated us like family.
"My father would
never interfere when
Tesio was alive.
BUT HE SHOWED HIS OWN CAPACITY
WITH HORSES AFTERWARD, WINNING
MANY CLASSIC RACES."
