Listening to Mark Davis talk about horse racing really hit home for me. I have grown up around horse racing and have loved it each and every time I go to the track to watch a race. One thing I did not know about the horse racing industry is that it is on the decline. Not only are less people getting into the racing community, but people seem to be less interested in it. As of 1989, horse racing was the second most widely sports attended event right behind baseball. At one point in time the economic effort of horse racing was a 39 billion dollar industry. This effects each and every part of the industry, from purses to amount of horses actively racing. In the recent years, all of these statistics have been decreasing. Mark began telling us about some statistics done in 2004, and at that time there were 9.2 million horses in the United States alone, and over 2 million people owned horses. One stigma in the US is that only people of wealth have horses but according to this 2004 data, 75% of horse owners make 25,000 to 75,000 dollars annually. Now that less people are entertained by the idea of the horse racing industry effects not only the drivers, owners, and horses but the economic activity in Delaware as well. In the near years a big hope according to Mark, is to not only slow the decline but to hopefully turn it around and increase all things in the economic activity and all that are involved in the horse race industry.