12/07/2026
Fine COTTON, Wellington – Horse.
The most famous, or infamous, race horse Wellington trainer Bill Payne had in his Brewery Lane stable was Fine Cotton, but its fame did not come from its racing prowess.
Fine Cotton was to become involved in the infamous 1984 “Fine Cotton Ring-in Affair”, which captured the attention of the nation and brought down some famous racing identities
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, and was owned by Mr Dick and
Mrs Hurst of “Ben Buckley”, 12-Mile Road, Wellington.
Fine Cotton had his first race in April 1981, and over the next four years competed in 32 races at meetings at Wellington, Geurie, Dubbo, Narromine, Warren, Gilgandra, Gulgong and Mudgee, generally racing over distances of 1000m to 1200m. He had 10 starts at picnic meetings, amassing seven wins, one second and two thirds. From his 22 starts in mainstream races, Fine Cotton registered four wins (Gulgong 2, Geurie and Gilgandra), one second place, six third places and two fourth places.
What followed, according to Peter Hoysted aka “Jack the Insider”, when interviewed by ABC’s Richard Fidler in May 2015, “It started out as fraud, became a fiasco and ended up as farce.”
While an inmate in Brisbane’s former Boggo Road jail, John Gillespie orchestrated how a switch could be made to defraud bookmakers.
On 14th July 1984, Peter Payne had taken Fine Cotton to Geurie where it came third in the Claude McLeod Cup. Bill was not at the meeting because of illness. After the race Peter was approached by Queensland former bloodstock agent John Gillespie, who asked if Fine Cotton was for sale. After making enquiries of the owners, Peter confirmed that the horse was for sale. Two weeks later Bill and Peter handed Fine Cotton over to Gillespie at the Brewery Lane stables, the sale price being $2000. Gillespie had intimated that the horse would be used for shows or picnic races.
It transpired that Gillespie, who was acting on behalf of a syndicate, had earlier purchased Dashing Solitaire, a horse that looked almost identical to Fine Cotton but was much better performed. The plan was to substitute Dashing Solitaire for Fine Cotton in a novice race at Eagle Farm, and to make a killing by backing the much better-performed ring-in at a long price.
Unfortunately for the syndicate, Dashing Solitaire was injured by barbed wire and unable to race. The ring-in was due to take place on Saturday, August 18, 1984. Having already invested money and gone so far, the syndicate decided to find another horse to ring-in. With time running out, in desperation they purchased, with a “dud” cheque, 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, six men wearing rubber gloves applied Clairol hair colouring to Bold Personality with limited success. On race day, the horse appeared bright red and the dye was washed out as much as possible. The group had forgotten the peroxide to whiten the hind leg of Bold Personality, they resorted to crudely spraying Dulux white paint to the horse’s rear hoof while the horse was still wet. These poorly conceived attempts to overcome the discrepancies in appearance between the two horses later served to highlight the amateurish nature of the scheme.
On race day, both Fine Cotton and Bold Personality were taken to the track. Fine Cotton stayed in the float in the car park. Fine Cotton (really, Bold Personality) opened in the betting at 33-1, but an avalanche of on-course bets, along with bets all over Australia, quickly brought the starting odds down to 7/2. As an example of the national rush to back the ring-in, Mark Hewitt, a friend of John Payne’s recalls being a juvenile runner for his uncle who was a bookmaker at Grafton on the day of the ring-in. Mark had to go to other bookies nine times to lay off bets that his uncle had taken as the price for Fine Cotton plummeted!
The ring-in horse won by a short half head. When it was returning to the paddock, the paint was running down its legs, and several punters in the crowd, set up by book-maker George Freeman, were shouting “Ring in!” Stewards immediately stopped all payments of bets. The second placed horse, Harbour Gold, was eventually declared the winner, the punters who had backed Fine Cotton lost their money.
Book-maker George Freeman is reported to have won $1.5.-$1.8 million on the outcome of the race.
When an announcement was made over the public-address system for the trainer, Hayden Haitana, to attend the stewards room, he took off with the real Fine Cotton in the float. A huge man and horse hunt was launched! Haitana was eventually located In Renmark South Australia while Fine Cotton was found, ten days later, in the Police Barracks not far from the Race Course
As a result of the subsequent stewards’ enquiry and court case, the Queensland Turf Club “warned off” several people for life. They were organiser John Gillespie, horse trainer Hayden Haitana, businessman Robert North, electrical technician Tommaso Di Luzio and salesman John Dixon. Sydney father and son bookmakers Bill and Robbie Waterhouse had their licences suspended for 14 years. Gillespie and Haitana served jail terms, while in 1992 Robbie Waterhouse served eight weekends of periodic detention for perjury in the enquiry. Peter Payne was twice flown to Brisbane to appear in the court case as a prosecution witness, where he confirmed that the horse that ran in the ring-in race was definitely not Fine Cotton.
Bill Payne was very upset by the whole affair. He had a high opinion of Fine Cotton as a horse and a strong affection for him. Bill was worried that Fine Cotton would be destroyed after the ring-in affair. Bill had sensed that something strange was going on immediately after the sale to Gillespie, as he noted from racing papers that Fine Cotton was being entered in Queensland races that were above his class. In retrospect these entries were for the horse to perform poorly, so as to get longer odds for the ring-in race. Fine Cotton’s last race before the ring-in race had been in a 1,200m intermediate Handicap at a Doomben mid-week meeting on 8th August, 1984, where he carried 53.5kg and started at 20-1. He ran 10th in a field of 12.
Fortunately, Bill’s fears about Fine Cotton being destroyed were not realised. After the ring-in he was bought by movie producer John Stainton, who intended to use him in a movie about the ring-in. Because of numerous legal difficulties, the movie was never made.
Apprentice jockey Gus Philpott, who rode “Fine Cotton” aka Bold Personality on the fateful day, told AAP’s Glenn Davis, in August 2008, “Fine Cotton is no longer the photogenic racehorse that won 13 times in 39 starts, but a 28-year-old greying gelding living the Life of Riley oblivious to his famous past.”
“His nickname is Satchmo because his current owner, movie producer John Stainton, was once told by Haitana he’d blow the trumpet on all those involved if he could talk.”
Fine Cotton died in Queensland 21st February, 2009 aged 31 years. One amusing aside of the whole affair came the Christmas after the ring-in, when an enterprising businessman was selling “Fine Cotton” underpants for men, with the legend “Fine Cotton Jocks – put your ring in here” printed on the backside. 5,000 pairs sold out in weeks!
In his later years, Bill Payne’s love and interest in his four-legged friends never diminished, and when Bill was well enough, Peter used to take him to the stables each day to see the horses in training and to talk with folk who were around. Even when failing eyesight prevented him seeing the races, Bill loved to attend the Wellington Races to talk with the patrons, who he could identify by their voices. His interest in racing was also kept alive by the fact that jockey Michael Diamond boarded with Bill for a few years after Marie’s 1977 death.
On Saturday August 27, 1983 Wellington Race Club held a “Living Legends” Race Meeting honoured three octogenarians, Bill Payne, Mr “Huck” Finn of Wellington and Bill Hughes of Parkes and formerly of Baldry. Bill, and the others, were delighted to be part of the special meeting.
Horses weren’t the only animals Bill could train with success. It is said he was equally successful with dogs and could train a dog to do almost anything. John Payne, Peter Payne’s older brother, remembers one of Bill’s dogs in particular, a highly intelligent Border Collie named “Kim” that Bill and Marie, who had no children, treated as though he were their own child. John remembers seeing Kim under lights at Rygate Park during sheepdog trials, performing tricks that Bill had taught him. The tricks included climbing up a ladder onto the saddle on a pony and sitting there while the pony was led around; and walking along a narrow plank that was suspended above the ground, like a balancing beam in gymnastics.
William (Bill) Payne passed away in the early hours of Friday June 28, 1985 at the age of 82, and was buried on Monday July 1, 1985 after a Requiem Mass at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church at 11.00am and interred in the Wellington Lawn Cemetery.
Wellington Times, Friday June 25, 1982. “Probably one of the oldest and most astute trainers on the Western Line, Bill Payne, pictured with his latest find, Find Cotton, who will be seen in action at Wellington Races tomorrow.”
SHOP –
57 LEE STREET, WELLINGTON.
1945 – Bill Payne Grocer and Fruiterer
Duke of Wellington Restaurant - 25.2.1977 (Ad WT)
August 1984 Duke of Wellington Restaurant – Bede and Helen Wykes
Scrubbers Steak House
28.6.1986 Auction Fixtures and Fittings from “Scrubbers”, Duke of Wellington Restaruant
Stubberfield’s Used Car Yard
Thank you, John Payne, for sharing this wonderful story and photographs of Bill.
References: The Wellington Voice Newspaper – July 3, 1985 - Obituary
Nephews, Mr. Peter Payne and Mr John Payne.
The Wellington Times Newspaper.
Paul Lousick (memory and photograph), Barry Taylor and many others.
John Bullock.
Montefiores Street’s was re-named Whiteley Street as there was confusion between Montefiores Road and Montefiores Street.
Bill was one of the few racing identities who had trained horses on the four Wellington Race Courses, Montefiores, the Tin Bridge, the Caves and the present one at the Showground.
Bill absolutely loved horses, and trained them for both picnic races and regular gallops, travelling to district race meetings as far afield as Dubbo, Mudgee, Gulgong, Gilgandra, Geurie and Parkes. Horses that he trained won many picnic race meeting cups. Daily Telegraph journalist, Alex Field, in an article written after Bill’s death in 1985, referred to Bill as being regarded as “King of the Country Cups in the west of the state.” Peter Payne believes that Bill’s best win was with Immortal Sherry when it won the Parkes Gold Cup1.
When asked if any particular horse stood out in his memory, Bill was reluctant to name any one horse, but he did concede that ‘Immortal Sherry”, “Dilmore”, “Kurraworra” and “Lady Kimber” were amongst the best.
