I have no experience with it myself, but just tonight I met a new boarder at our stable who does. She just moved down here from Ohio with two OTTBs she bought at the Sugarcreek auction there. She said her gelding literally went straight from his last race to the auction yard-- he still had the imprint of the racing saddle on his back when he went through the ring. She bought him for $400, outbidding the kill buyer. She's bought 7 of them that way so far (she retrained and sold the others), and she claims that it's VERY common now for thoroughbreds to go straight from track to auction, and most of them then go from auction to slaughter.