In today's Age, Michael Lynch writing about the Winx Factor providing a record 22k crowd for the Turnbull Stakes writes that the lesson to be learnt is

If racing people are worried about falling attendances they should realise the horses need to be made the stars of the show. Marketing should focus on them, and to a lesser extent the jockeys. They will attract not just punters but newcomers.

Black Caviar did it, and so does Winx. It’s a far better way to sell the sport than as it so often is promoted these days, as an all-day drinkathon or as a pick-up joint, a sort of highcolour, daytime nightclub with the racing merely as a backdrop

http://todayspaper.smedia.com.au/the...entity=ar04504

IMO the same lesson applies to Harness