Fine Cotton

Fine Cotton (29 November 1976 – 20 February 2009) was a brown Australian Thoroughbred gelding which was at the centre of a substitution scam (also known as a ring-in) which occurred on 18 August 1984, in the Commerce Novice (2nd division) Handicap over 1,500 metres at Eagle Farm Racecourse, Brisbane, Queensland.

Before the ring-in, Fine Cotton's last race was in a 1,200m Intermediate Handicap at a Doomben Wednesday meeting on 8 August 1984, where he carried 53.5 kg and started at 20–1.

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 and performed better.

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.

Even allowing for the restricted class, Fine Cotton was in such poor form that he was considered to have an outside chance of winning and opened in the betting at odds of 33–1.

As betting continued, money began to be invested on Fine Cotton both at Eagle Farm and at other tracks and TABs throughout the country.

The early favourite Harbour Gold, which had drifted from fractional odds to 5–1, clung to the rail, and Bold Personality, racing as Fine Cotton and ridden by apprentice Gus Philpot, claimed him on the outside.

Suspicious after the huge betting plunge and the seemingly dramatic improvement made by Fine Cotton, racing stewards launched an immediate investigation.

With the disqualification, runner-up Harbour Gold was awarded the race, and the many punters who had backed Fine Cotton did not receive any money.

[4] The jockey involved, Gus Philpot, was exonerated by the course stewards and continued to ride at race meetings in eastern Australia.