95
The ring-in horse “Fine Cotton” is
shown on the left, just beating the
favourite to the finishing post.See also: The Tichborne Claimant 177CON ARTISTS
He chose the out-of-form Fine
Cotton, which he purchased for
$2,000 (£1,175), and hired Hayden
Haitana as its trainer.
Days before the race, the
syndicate suffered a catastrophic
setback when Dashing Solitaire
was injured. By this point, Gillespie
had invested heavily in the scheme
and was desperate for a pay off.
So he paid $20,000 (£11,750) – with
a cheque that would later bounce- for the horse Bold Personality.
There was one snag: he did not
look anything like Fine Cotton.
Bold Personality was lighter in
colour and had a white marking
on his forehead. So, the night before
the race, Gillespie and Haitana
surreptitiously applied hair dye and
paint to make him appear more like
Fine Cotton.
Short odds
When “Fine Cotton” stepped onto
the racetrack, betting escalated
at a suspicious pace. The horsestarted with odds of 33-1, but they
soon changed dramatically to 7-2.
After “Fine Cotton” narrowly won,
officials quickly spotted evidence
of the ring-in and the horse wasdisqualified. Police began a
manhunt for the culprits, but by
then Haitana had fled. He was soon
apprehended, however, jailed for
six months, and banned from the
racetrack for life. Six others,
including Gillespie, were also
banned. The horse’s innocent
jockey, Gus Philpot, was cleared.
The ring-in became one of the
most notorious scams in the history
of the sport. To combat similar
plots, racehorses are now identified
through microchips. ■Cheating in the “Sport of Kings”
A ring-in is not the only method
cheaters use to make money
illegally on the horse track.
Probably the best-known
scam is to engineer betting odds
by strategically placing large
bets. Bookmakers now closely
monitor betting patterns to
identify any suspicious activity.
Other tricksters have gone so far
as to create fake winning
tickets, but technological
improvements now make it
difficult for such crude practices
to succeed.Most of the cheating occurs on
the other side of the rail, with
unscrupulous trainers, jockeys,
owners, and veterinarians
attempting to alter races
through collusion or by drugging
horses with steroids and pain
medication. Regular drug
testing has made this more
difficult, however. Crooked
trainers and jockeys have also
been known to use “buzzers”,
illegal devices that give the
horses electric shocks and force
them to run faster.I thought they were booing
me because my ride was a
roughie and I must’ve beaten
the favourite.
Gus Philpot094-095_Hayden_Haitana.indd 95 02/12/2016 14:42