in New York , alone , cold , and without cigarettes or the money to buy them -- I had smashed open a vending machine to get a pack . A friend called up and told me to start living like a human being again . He invited me to the track . I had nothing better to do , and I figured it would be good therapy to get out and have lunch with a friend and watch the horses come down the stretch . I 'll never forget that day . I put on a Pierre Cardin jeans outfit that had no pockets and drove to Calder Race Course . I can still see the horses warming up before the third race . There was a horse called Lady Forli -- a filly running against males . Normally , female horses do n't beat males . We 're talking cheap horses . I scanned the board and saw that she was 70-1 . But my eyes really opened when I looked at the racing form . Racetrack people talk to each other . So I turned to the guy next to me and said , `` You know
Editor 's note : Below is an excerpt from Larry King 's autobiography , `` My Remarkable Journey , '' published by Weinstein Books and available at bookstores nationwide . Larry King anchors `` Larry King Live at 9 p.m. ET on CNN . Larry King recalls a much-needed win at the track during one of the lowest points of his life . I was thirty-seven years old . -LRB- In 1971 -RRB- . I had no job . I had a couple hundred thousand dollars in debts . And a four-year-old daughter . I 'd take Chaia to our secret park on our visiting days . That 's when the pain cut the deepest -- looking at my daughter and knowing I had no way to support her . Things got bleaker and bleaker . I became a recluse . By late May , I was down to forty-two dollars . My rent was paid only until the end of the month . I locked myself in my apartment wondering how bad things could possibly get . Pretty soon I would n't even be able to afford cigarettes . I remembered a night when I was a young man