(This is the time of year when the horse racing season for the Ivory Pine Syndicate is winding down, but the soccer season for the Rosevelt Soccer Club is gearing up. Here's a 90-day glimpse of the day in the life of a horse racing managing partner and soccer club administrator.)
Awoke, 4:50a
RSC admin, 6:45a-7a
Another opportunity to highlight our club's players' achievements with their high school programs. Brief blurbs in the local paper are the primary source for these posts, but texts from our club's members and my own observations are also used at times to ensure as many players as possible are recognized for their on-field accomplishments during the high school season.
Visited Norton Farm, 2:45p-3:30p
Norton Farm predates the United States with a founding date of 1742, and the multigenerational farm has been a steady and influential presence in Maine harness racing since the late 1950s. Our trainer Mike Graffam currently owns and runs the farm, and there are about 50 horses on the property--including more than 20 pacers and trotters in training. The farm features a half-mile training track and multiple pastures that all of the horses use.
Wednesdays are the only day of the week Mike and his crew at Team Graffam aren't sending horses to races in Maine or Massachusetts, so it's the best afternoon to stop in for a chat and to feed our pacers Crimson Pine and Sixby Hanover their weekly carrot treats.
Listened to the Ron Flatter Racing Pod, 5p-6:30p
The biggest weekend on the Thoroughbred racing calendar is coming up, when Del Mar hosts the Breeders' Cup on Friday and Saturday. I usually don't handicap races until the day of the race, but for big days like this weekend I'll start listening to some the many podcasts devoted to handicapping these big races all week.
One of my favorites is the Ron Flatter Racing Pod. I've been listening to most of these weekly episodes since I first really got hooked on Thoroughbred racing in 2019, and Ron Flatter's pop-up episodes on big days that feature a roundtable of handicappers is always a must-listen. I've learned over the years that handicapping via podcast isn't successful because there are too many opinions scattered across the different podcasts and their guests. But I still listen to the podcasts, because they help me identify potential consensus singles that I either want to champion or fade, and every once in a while there's a good case made for a long shot.
At the very least, these immersive listens over the course of the week help me become familiar with each race, the storylines for each race, and any clear singles or tosses for each race. That info helps me when I actually handicap on race day, because it helps me to narrow my horizontal wagers and look more closely at potential price plays.
RSC admin, 8p-8:15p
Maine youth players' Fall Classic season is coming to a close, so more parents and younger players have soccer on the mind than they did when our club hosted our first round of player evaluations back in June. Our second round of evaluations is fewer than two weeks away, so we've posted a paid ad on Facebook. One way we've steadily built our club to 16 teams and 300+ players while keeping participation fees so low is by relying heavily on word-of-mouth to attract players. But we do have a 3-figure marketing budget that we tap into a few times a year.
Asleep, 8:50p
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