It's extremely difficult for people to sell/place horses of all breeds in open markets or auction. Killer prices are $500 or less, and that's what alot of horses will go for, to pet homes. That puts all those horses at risk, even when the owners don't want that. There's a reason that the minimum bid at Keeneland is $1000 for every horse.
BTW, look in your local paper, there's always a guy willing to "buy or sell horses any price". That's an aggregator for killers.
The only alternative for track people is to work their network of contacts off the track, to try and appropriately place any horse when their career is over. That network is always overworked.
It's tough on horses, and until we have alot less of them in the TB industry, the problem will remain. We only have so many back pastures and pet homes to retire them to. I don't know any improved answer, or any more than what people are trying to do now. The good people are taking lifetime responsibility for the horses that pass through their hands. But not everyone has the means or location or contacts to do so.
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"Have the clean racing people run any ads explaining that giving a horse a Starbucks and a chocolate poppyseed muffin for breakfast would likely result in a ten year suspension for the trainer?" - Dr. Andrew Roberts
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