Who says you can’t feed a family by being a dreamer?

Anthony Spadea is a dreamer.

He’s been dreaming about thoroughbreds for 35 years.

He’s been dreaming about winners and placers and even the occassional also-ran that just might get a nose into the money one of these days.

He’s been dreaming about Ginny’s Jet – his favorite entry of late at the resilient, but quite possibly doomed, Suffolk Downs.

Anthony Spadea owns horses. And thanks to all his dreaming, a lot of families have been fed over the years.

“About 15 percent of the owners make money,” says Spadea, who runs an insurance agency in Braintree. “This is where I come instead of the golf course.”

No, the Sport of Kings doesn’t pay big for owners like Spadea – devoted as they are to Suffolk and the breeding of Massachusetts horses. But it pays the bills for nearly 3,000 people across the state who do their part to support the industry.

Just maintaining a single thoroughbred in New England costs about $22,000 a year, between feed costs and grooming, veterinary bills, licenses, insurance and other needs.

The trickle-down may start in East Boston, but it spreads mighty quick into the horse farms of our westernmost counties.

Total economic impact from the industry: $300 million, according to Boston College management professor the Rev. Richard McGowan.

There’s the trainers, like Ron Dandy, who works out more than 40 horses for a variety of owners out of the backstretch at Suffolk.

A typical good day: “All your horses train good. They run good. And you win a race,” Dandy says.

There are the jockeys, like Joey Hampshire, who has a 16-year- old daughter he may not see for months when the Suffolk schedule ends Oct. 27.

Unable to foot the expense of winter racing, Suffolk’s owners don’t plan to resume live racing until May.

“A lot of these kids are going to have nowhere to go,” says Hampshire, who figures he won’t return to Boston if he’s forced to find work at a track in Maryland or Delaware.

And there are the horse farmers.

Tim Kirby’s Smokey Valley Farm in Dover has been in his family for years.

With no racing until May, he’ll probably get out of the business.

“That’s a lot of time between drinks,” he says.

These are dark days at Suffolk Downs. Just six months ago, the hope that slot machines would finally rescue the industry was renewed with considerable vigor. But then it faded just as quickly – lost in a mish-mash of Beacon Hill gambling bills with little chance of seeing life.

Now, as jockeys, trainers, groomers and other track workers fret about making it through the winter, the threat of Suffolk going dark from simple inertia is very real.

“We’ve got two dilemmas,” says horse owner Jeff Hooper. “One of them is the short term.”

It’s the only dilemma that really matters right now.

Manny Roos, president of the New England Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, is pleading with the track’s ownership to front the money for a winter racing season.

“By contractual agreements (we) will see to it that during that meet the advanced funding will be returned to the ownership,” Roos pledged in a letter to me last week. “Suffolk Downs has fulfilled its obligation … and we know they did not create the problem. However, they have the solution.”

The second dilemma – the long-term future of Suffolk – will hopefully be addressed another day.

But there’s no chance of that unless the first problem is solved.

Anthony Spadea and Many Roos and Jeff Hooper.

They’re just three horsemen – dreamers, really – whose dreams just happen to support a few hundred families.

A lot of bets have gone down on their horses over the years.

Now they’re asking Suffolk to lay a wager on them.

Well, I’d take that action.

And I’m no sucker.

I’d take that action any day of the week.

Extreme luxury is alive and well

By now the thrill of sinking two holes-in-one in two days has sunk in for Bill Allard, of Boston – chief executive of Marquis Jet and one-time head of the SFX Sports Group. The 15-year golfer nailed aces at Kingsbarns and Carnoustie in St. Andrews, Scotland, during the Dunhill Links Pro-Am last month.

It’s part of the luxury lifestyle that Allard specializes in these days.

His Marquis Jet memberships – a kind of timeshare plan for private jets – feature celebrity endorsements from the likes of Major League Baseball slugger Jason Giambi, U.S. Open champion golfer Jim Furyk, rap artist/mogul Jay-Z and pro tennis player Tim Henman.

In this case, however, it seems the purpose of celebrity endorsements must be to get other celebrities to buy the memberships. Or at least your average hedge fund manager.

Member cards range from $109,000 to $299,900 – with the minimum purchase being 25 hours of flight time.

“Marquis provides a young and consistent fleet of aircraft,” rapper Jay-Z says in his testimonial.

Forget Nike shoes and Pepsi-Cola.

The role models of today are pitching private jet service.

Tell me something I don’t know: cosmo@bostonherald.com