Colorado Racing Officials Examine $200K Purse Dispute

During its scheduled meeting Nov. 9, the Division of Racing of the Colorado Department of Revenue reported that nearly $200,000 in funds had reverted from individual horsemen's accounts at Arapahoe Park into the general purse fund over the past five years. 

Transferred funds came at the end of the year from those accounts in which tax identification had not been submitted and those that had uncollected funds, according to Shannon Rushton, director of racing and racing secretary at Bally's Arapahoe Park. The money was then applied toward general purse overpayments and toward future races, he said. Individuals were not taxed on money they did not receive, he noted.

The track runs from summer through mid-fall.

"I still don't fully understand these withdrawals from the horsemen's accounts," said Jim Mulvihill, interim executive director of Colorado Horsemen's Association. "It's money that horsemen earned in races. So to take it away from them and put it in the general purse account never made a lot of sense to me. All I'm concerned about is getting everybody their earnings back, and hopefully, we can do that."

Rushton, who previously served as the executive director of the CHA, said the track previously proposed to the horsemen's association transferring funds to the general purse account because "with their internal audits, they didn't want to continue that money forward." 

Commissioners urged Donia Amick, director of the Division to Racing, Mulvihill, and Bally's Aparahoe Park executive director Bruce Seymore to meet.