Hialeah makes last payment

MIAMI - Hialeah Park transferred the remaining $647,082 in purse money owed area horsemen to Calder on Tuesday afternoon, according to Rick Sacco, Hialeah's general manager, ending a dispute that has raged between the track and the Florida Division of the Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association since the Hialeah meet ended on May 22.

Hialeah, which owed horsemen in excess of $5.2 million at the conclusion of their meet, transferred $4 million of that money to Calder later that week and another $585,000 on June 4. In the interim the Florida Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering, at the behest of the FHBPA, began an audit of Hialeah's horsemen's purse accounts that is not expected to be finished until the first of next week.

This weekend horsemen began reporting checks drawn on the Hialeah account had been returned for "insufficient funds." Sacco said he was aware of that problem and that an additional $306,000 was re-deposited in the account Tuesday morning to cover those checks.