Antonacci on the Lindy Farms oval with Ever Gorgeous, a two-year-old. Photograph: Gary Wayne Gilbert

On a brisk Friday morning in May at Lindy Farms, a 600-acre breeding and training facility for racehorses in Enfield, Connecticut, head trainer Frank Antonacci oversees the daily regimen of 48 horses, from feeding (at 5:30 a.m.) to workouts on two stone-dust tracks (a 5/8-mile oval and half-mile straightaway) to the precautionary monitoring of temperatures and pulse rates to time-out in grassy paddocks. A dozen horses will be racing over the weekend at northeastern venues, and with tack, food, and other equipment to arrange, the stables are a hive of activity. Wearing a windbreaker and parachute pants in the farm’s racing colors—charcoal with blue trim—Antonacci moves energetically through the stables, asking questions in measured tones and issuing reminders and instructions to his crew of 20 barn workers and assistant trainers.

Lindy Farms horses are harness racers, Standardbreds, known for their ability to race at a disciplined gait—either a trot (diagonal hooves touching the ground simultaneously) or a pace (the hooves on the left alternating with the hooves on the right). Antonacci grew up on the farm, which was started in the early 1960s by his grandfather Guy, who ran an ice and garbage hauling business in New York City. At age seven, Frank was jogging horses. At 17 he won his first race, in a two-wheeled sulky. He still races regularly—a challenge he enjoys in part because, he says, “it’s all about communication with the horse.”

At Boston College, Antonacci enrolled in the Carroll School of Management, intending to join a financial firm in New York afterward. But during his senior year, Lindy Farms’ head trainer departed. Antonacci decided to try out the job. Suddenly he was introduced to a raft of non-track responsibilities, from personnel management to billing (most horses at the farm are boarders). Since 2005, when Antonacci took on the job, the facility has added 40 horses, including three—Crazed, Air Zoom Lindy, and Highscore Kemp—that set world record times.

Antonacci says he’s tried to bring “more of a business mentality” to the farm. Last year, he began selling $500 shares in Bourbon Slush, a yearling, via the Internet. The initial offering proved so popular that he added two more horses. Share-holders can track the horses’ progress via Facebook, Twitter, and web pages that Antonacci oversees. Web cams provide streaming video from their stalls.

Sage Stossel is a Boston-based writer.