Johnny Ferraro was a hard-eyed, strict boss in his mid-30s who owned a pipefitting shop in Brooklyn during the 1920s. It was here that Buddy Jacobson’s uncle, Hirsch Jacobs, went to work after leaving high school at the age of thirteen. While employed by Ferraro, Hirsch met Johnny’s younger brother, Charlie Ferraro, who worked alongside him in the shop. Charlie introduced Hirsch to pigeon racing, an interest that would ultimately lead Hirsch into the world of horse racing.

In many ways, Johnny Ferraro’s shop became the unlikely starting point for what would evolve into the Jacobs–Jacobson horse racing dynasty. Over the next five decades, that lineage would influence a series of unexpected events and connections, both fortunate and tragic, weaving through the worlds of racing, business, and popular culture in ways few could have predicted.