AUBURN, Wash. – Ron Crockett knows full well the problems the horse-racing industry is suffering nationwide: lack of horses, dwindling attendance and less money being wagered.

He isn’t fazed.

“I know what’s going on out there,” said Crockett, the president of Emerald Downs in Auburn. “I don’t have my head in the sand. But I feel really good about what we are doing, and I don’t have anything to say that’s not positive. I feel good about our future.”

Maybe that’s because Emerald, which Crockett helped found in 1996, is bucking the national trend by seeing a big increase in attendance and a small increase in handle.

“Every day I drive into work, I look forward to it,” Crockett said. “We’re doing well. I like where we are positioned. We’re not going anywhere”

It is a pleasant surprise for Crockett, who had projected declines this year.

“No, I didn’t expect this, but I just think it shows that we’re doing the right things,” Crockett said.

He lists the reasons, from selling 10,000 discounted tickets through Groupon to offering free pony rides and face painting for children.

Although Emerald has never announced attendance, Crockett said it is up 11.5 percent over last year. Daily handle (money wagered at Emerald Downs and on Emerald races) is up 0.8 percent. And while purses for stakes races decreased this year, the purses for claiming and allowance races (the vast majority of the races at the racetrack) are up 1 percent, in part because of the 20 percent the Muckleshoot Tribe contributes.

While those numbers paint a nice picture, the thoroughbred industry in the state and nationwide continues to struggle. Horses are selling for less, meaning fewer horses are being bred, leading to a nationwide shortage of horses. And it doesn’t help that horses race a lot less frequently than they did in decades past.

Emerald Downs trimmed eight racing days off its schedule this season, to an all-time low 82-day meet. That reduction hasn’t helped field sizes, which have averaged 6.72, another all-time low at the racetrack. Only once during the meet has a card had an average of at least eight horses per race. It happened 36 times in 2008.

Maybe that is not surprising considering that in 1999, there were 1,021 registered foals in the state, with 703 racing at least once. In 2008, there were 528, with just 268 racing.

Ninety Washington-bred yearlings sold at auction last year, down from 238 in 2000, and down from 154 in 2007.