Here's an article that we just found out about:
Horse Racing has a problem world wide, it is losing numbers fast
One of the reasons for this is that the horse racing authorities have gone off in a tangent in the last 20 years trying to attract the general populous to the sport Whilst this may work for special events like the Melbourne Cup, it does not and cannot work during the rest of the year...
Go read about - Attracting People Back To Racing