$/€ The Fine Cotton Scandal in 1984: How Scammers Dyed a Horse to Win Bets
Xenia Luch
04 March 2024
Comment 0
Imagine you’re a gambler looking for a sure way to win some money at the races. You have a clever idea: swap a slow horse with a fast one that looks just like it, and bet on the impostor. Sounds easy, right? Well, not if you’re dealing with the unpredictable wildlife of Australia.
That’s what happened in August 1984 at the Eagle Farm Racecourse in Brisbane, when a group of con artists tried to pull off one of the most audacious scams in horse racing history. They planned to replace a low-ranked horse named Fine Cotton with a much better one named Bold Personality, and dye its coat to match.
But their scheme ran into trouble when they encountered some unexpected obstacles: kangaroos.
First Attempt: Failure with Dashing Solitaire
The brains behind this horse racing scam was John Gillespie, a horse breeder who had gotten away with a similar switcheroo in 1982. But he didn’t make any money from that caper, and he was itching to try again 2 years later.
Gillespie bought two horses that looked alike: Fine Cotton and Dashing Solitaire. Fine Cotton was old and slow, and he always lost to faster horses. Gillespie made sure he had a bad racing record, so he could get high betting odds from the bookies later on.
Dashing Solitaire, on the other hand, was strong and fast. He was trained by Hayden Haitana, a friend of Gillespie’s, who kept him hidden from prying eyes. The plan was to swap him with Fine Cotton at the right moment.
But things went wrong when Dashing Solitaire met some kangaroos. One day, he was spooked by the hopping animals and ran into a barbed wire fence.
Bold Personality: The Hair Dye Trick
The scammers had originally picked a race called Commerce Novice, with a 1500-meter handicap, for their horse swap. But they had to change their plans when Dashing Solitaire was wounded by the fence. They quickly found another horse to take his place: Bold Personality, a fast horse trained by Haitana.
There was only one big problem: Fine Cotton was black, and Bold Personality was chestnut.
The crooks decided to buy some hair dye for women and use it on the horse. Some say that Haitana himself was the one who colored the horse’s coat, running around the bewildered animal in the yard. Somehow, they managed to finish the job.
But the result was disastrous. The horse didn’t turn black, but orange.
And that’s not all. At the last minute, the scammers realized that Fine Cotton had white markings on his back legs.
So they had to do another touch-up: spraying some white paint on the horse’s feet.
Fake Fine Cotton Wins the Race, But Not the Money
Gillespie and Haitana didn’t care about the orange color of Bold Personality. They had no time to fix it, and they took the horse to the race, pretending it was Fine Cotton. Amazingly, the stewards let the horse run.
The fake Fine Cotton did exactly what they wanted: he beat all the other horses and won the race. It was a huge shock, since Fine Cotton was known as a loser.
Dye Job Runs Down, Scam Exposed
The odds for Fine Cotton to win changed a lot before the race. He started at 34 to 1, but because of a lot of bets, the odds dropped to 4.5.
The stewards noticed the weird betting activity, but they didn’t have any proof of cheating before the race started.
But the proof came right after the race. The stewards told the bookies to stop paying out the bets on Fine Cotton. They wanted to see the papers for the horse, but they didn’t need them. That’s because they saw the hair dye running down the horse’s coat. The jig was up.
Gillespie and Haitana Face Justice
The scammers hoped to make about £1 million from their bets, but they got nothing. The authorities found out that about 12 people were in on the scam, and they all got banned from horse racing.
Gillespie and Haitana also faced jail time. Gillespie spent 4 years in prison, while Haitana got 1 year.
