You're right
james.
Francois Racine is actually
Steve Baës.
There's a lot more detail in the Bukowski story 'My friend the gambler', published in High Times October 1984.
In 'My friend...' his character is called 'Steve Cosmos'. Bukowski paints him as a wild character, borrowing money and skipping out all the time. He is referred to as 'one of the ten most wanted men' in Europe, an actor and con man who scams banks and casinos. He goes to the track with Chinaski then goes back to France. He gets jailed in Paris, then he jumps bail. Later he turns up again in the USA staying with Jean Sasoon (Schroeder). Still gambling, he borrows money from Chinaski and then he works as Chinaski's gardener. While Sasoon is filming a documentary about Chinaski, he persuades Cosmos to write an autobiographical story, about a professional gambler. Then Sasoon leaves for Paris to get the film of this story into production. Cosmos vanishes and resurfaces in Paris to act the part of 'Director of the Casino' in the film based on his story, which Sasoon is directing (this is a real film,
Tricheurs). 'My friend the gambler' closes with Chinaski meeting Cosmos again at a race track in the US. A lot of the detail from 'Hollywood' is there too, the poor neighbourhood with the chickens and the arms coming through the wall. It's a good one. :cool: