The biggest takeaway message from a panel on transitioning Thoroughbred racehorses to second careers during the Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit at Keeneland June 28 was how trainers need to protect their horses while they're on the track in order to give them more fulfilling opportunities down the road.

"There is absolutely a market for retired Thoroughbred racehorses, but they have to come off the track sound," said Allie Conrad, executive director of CANTER Midlantic, which has helped place more than 10,000 horses in new homes. "Injecting a joint and running a horse one last time, it might come off the track sound for the trainer, but it's not going to be sound for a second career.

"(In terms of medication rules), I know you cannot legislate morality, but you can push ethics on people that injecting a horse's knee when it has chips to run it a second and third time after it nearly broke down; (rescue organizations) can't do anything to help that horse," she added.

Conrad said the best way to find a new home for a racehorse is for trainers to research programs already in place at a given track. CANTER Midlantic, which has volunteers at nearly every racing facility in the region, seeks out trainers and lists horses that are ready to be retired from racing as a free online classified service