Kiwi chapter closes in racing’s greatest scandal
Hayden Haitana played comedy role in the con job, writes Max Presnell.
Brisbane in the early 1980s was the stage for the Fine Cotton comedy of errors, but the George Brown tragedy gave the scene a sinister tone.
Happy-but-hardly-go-lucky New Zealander Hayden Haitana, official trainer of Fine Cotton, supplied the laughs, but the mirth subsides with recollections of trainer Brown, savagely murdered in what many regard as his role in another alleged planned substitution that went wrong in Brisbane, with no links to Fine Cotton.
Fine Cotton, possibly the greatest racing scandal of our time, came to the fore this week with the death of Haitana, 72. A service for him was held on Friday at Gawler racecourse, in South Australia, once forbidden territory.
Haitana prepared both Fine Cotton, a no-account bush battler from NSW, for the Doomben Novice on August 18, 1984, as well as being involved in the paint job on the much superior stand-in Bold Personality.
‘‘Some have weakness for the drink, some for women, some for the punt, and some for the con – but I’m lucky I’ve got the lot,’’ Haitana is quoted in Fine Cotton and Me, a memoir written with Graham Bauer.
Bold Personality, racing as Fine Cotton, scored a short half-head win from Harbour Gold after being backed from 33-1 to 7-2, with as little as 6-4 being offered at the corresponding Warwick Farm meeting in Sydney, where the big money arrived regarding the worst-kept secret of the turf.
I was at Warwick Farm and 10 minutes after the race knew the details and wouldn’t have been in the first 1000 to hear of the planned sting. Certainly it had the whiff of a double whammy. Going on the whispered word, it was being offered for weeks previously in Sydney betting circles, but shunned by most. ‘‘You wouldn’t put a zac into an operation featuring Hayden Haitana,’’ one wag told me.
There wasn’t a public whisper at Eagle Farm before the event, but punters chanted ‘‘ring-in’’ when the horses returned to the enclosure, prompting official action and the disqualification of ‘‘Fine Cotton’’, with all bets being lost.
Haitana was warned off Australian racecourses for life by stewards until the ban was lifted in 2013. He was also sent to jail.
Another major player, John Gillespie, was also jailed, while bookmakers Bill Waterhouse and son Robbie Waterhouse were warned off for having prior knowledge. Robbie returned in 2001, while his father was given a bookmaking licence again in 2002.
Due to similarity, the talented Dashing Soltaire was the first horse chosen to switch with Fine Cotton, but he ran into a fence and so another had to be found on short notice. Bold Personality was selected, obviously on ability more than appearance.
‘‘He looked nothing like Fine Cotton,’’ Haitana divulged to Bauer, forcing a transformation with ‘‘hair stuff’’ women use.
Alas, the next day Bold Personality was red in colour.
Fine Cotton produced more humour than anguish, but Risley was grisly. Trained by Brown, Risley was backed from 12-1 to 8-1 at Doomben around the same time. Brown’s body was later found 15 kilometres north of Wollongong. Investigations in three states failed to find Brown’s killers.
You wouldn’t put a zac into an operation featuring Hayden Haitana.
The
Sun-Herald