There is a portion of prize money devoted to that program. If you scratch beneath the surface I'm not sure what you'd find. Most race horses can't simply be sent to pony clubs unless you want a lot of teenage girls killed trying to ride strong and erratic ex race horses. I suspect a lot are sold to someone outside horse racing, who then disposes of them as they see fit (to an abattoir). . Harness racing has a similar program and I don't think they even pretend it's working. There's little attention there because it's become an obscure sport so there's not much mileage for animal welfare advocates in targeting it. Thoroughbred racing is targeted not for the numbers killed but because horses are a gateway animal, now seen more as pets but once viewed as a working animal. The issue animal welfare advocates are targeting isn't really horse racing, where a bit more than 100 horses die each year when racing, but meat eating in which about one billion animals are killed each year. Horse racing is being targeted as a possibly vulnerable proxy.
