Hialeah Park offers glamour, purses and a dose of history.

The color and flash of racing at Hialeah Park.

The opening weekend at Hialeah is in the books, but the meet — and the latest chapter in American Quarter Horse racing — is just beginning. The track will host racing four days a week through February 2. During that time, they will give out $4 million in purses to those who show up to take advantage of it. They also have 23 stakes races, including the $100,000-added Hialeah Laddie, Hialeah Lassie and South Florida Derby. And, with the success of this meet, the sport may be poised to develop a year-round circuit fueled by alternative gaming money.

The track, generally known as one of the most beautiful racetracks ever built in the United States, features 10×10′ temporary stalls for horses with lots of air ventilation for the warm Florida weather. The track itself has a long history of being exceptionally kind for horses to train over, prompting Thoroughbred horsemen to bid for stalls in the hopes they could just train over the surface.

Horsemen’s Representative Duayne Diderickson has worked with horsemen and staff, keeping everything running smoothly. Horses are arriving daily to take advantage of the purses and the beautiful track.

Among those shipping in are leading trainer Paul Jones. The seven-time champion trainer is sending a string of 26 horses. On Friday, November 27, six of his horses arrived at the Miami International Airport after being flown in from California. The horses were shipped in two containers, each holding three horses, via FedEx. After arrival, they were unloaded and reloaded onto trailers by assistant trainer Raymond Vargas, who oversaw their arrival at Hialeah Park.

“We want Quarter Horse racing to have this new venue,” said Florida horseman Dan Lucas. “We think we’ve taken a major step forward. We certainly hope in the future that more of the horsemen take advantage of it.

“Purses should increase with each book,” he continued. “The money should improve; we have a guaranteed amount to give away. Early in the meet, they weren’t sure what horses would show up, so we’ve got a lot of extra money to give away and purses should increase gradually over the whole meet. We need horses down here, so come race.”

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