Monday was the 30th anniversary of horse racing's biggest scandal involving the infamous switch of Wellington racehorse Fine Cotton for Bold Personality, and the subsequent controversial race at Eagle Farm on August 18, 1984.
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The 'Ring In' caused international headlines and damaged the sport's reputation. It involved a priest, famous bookmakers including Robbie Waterhouse, husband of horse trainer Gai, and Peter McCoy, who owned hotels and was alleged to be one of Australia's best known SP bookmakers.
Fine Cotton was trained in Wellington by Bill Payne and his nephew, who strapped the horse. Peter Payne is still amazed by the story.
"I was playing cricket I think at the time of the Fine Cotton substitution race. When I heard about it I couldn't believe it and yes I never backed it," Mr Payne said.
Peter has great associations with the horse for his uncle and Fine Cotton reaped a major harvest for his connections winning races around the bush including Geurie, Gulgong and Gilgandra, Mudgee for its owner Dick Hurst, who lived at the property Ben Buckley on the 12 Mile Road near Wellington.
"Everybody connected with the horse here has passed away except for me. It was a great time for racing back then, but no one ever predicted this would happen and how it would embroil the whole of the game, including the big hitters," Mr Payne said.
Still a regular racegoer he remembers Neville Sellwood junior rode him one day.
"There were only two horses in that race but the son of the famous Neville, who lived near Orange, rode him wel," he said.
Stabled at Brewery Lane in Wellington, Fine Cotton was eventually sold.
Fine Cotton was foaled on November 29 1976, by Aureo from Cottonpicker by Delta. He was bred by the estate of the late G A Darke and Mr W D Hayne, New South Wales.
The scam involved a syndicate, said to be headed by former bloodstock agent John Gillespie, which purchased a horse that looked almost identical to Fine Cotton (Dashing Solitaire) and performed better.
Unfortunately for the syndicate, this horse was injured and unable to race when the ring-in was due to take place.
Having already invested money and gone so far, the syndicate decided to find another horse.
With time running out, they purchased a horse called Bold Personality, an open-class horse several grades above Fine Cotton.
The syndicate faced a problem in that the horses were different colours.
Fine Cotton was an eight-year-old brown gelding and had white markings on his hind legs, whereas Bold Personality was a seven-year-old bay gelding with no markings.
To overcome this problem, they applied Clairol hair colouring to Bold Personality with limited success.
On race day, having forgotten the peroxide to whiten the legs of Bold Personality, they resorted to crudely applied white paint.
These poorly conceived attempts to overcome the discrepancies in appearance between the two horses later served to highlight the amateurish nature of the scheme.
