Mitch,
at least you are thinking mate, as a matter of fact, there is merit in some of your "controversial" views, but without going into a long winded reply, I believe one of the biggest things that has hampered our game in the last 25 years is the demise of our free news coverage, think about this mate, the thorougbreds are getting heaps of coverage like they always have, once upon a time trotting ( thats right the "red hots") had similar space in our dailies and similar numbers of specialist writers/journos.
Sure the gallopers are not imune to the battle for the entertainment/punting dollar, but they are travelling a bucket load better than we are!!
Have the gallopers introduced rules banning amateur jockeys?
Have they changed the distances, starting methods, qualification criteria etc for their feature races?
Have they adopted dog style numbers for even one millisecond??
No mate they have done none of these things, because they are still getting plenty of free coverage, which in itself generates interest and the income that flows from that.
a bit of food for thought Mitch,
Cheers,
Dan