Trainer Hayden Haitana's life ban lifted over Fine Cotton ring-in scandal

HAYDEN Haitana is "finding it hard to believe" that his 29-year-ban over the Fine Cotton affair had finally come to an end.

Trainer Hayden Haitana at Goolwa last week. Picture: Simon Cross

HAYDEN Haitana was yesterday "finding it hard to believe" that his 29 year ban from racetracks had finally come to an end.

The trainer of infamous ring-in Fine Cotton, is once again free to enter the racetracks of Australia after the Queensland All Codes Racing Industry Board lifted his lifetime ban.

The board agreed to recommendations made by stewards and the Queensland Thoroughbred Racing Board that Haitana have his warning off removed.

Hayden Haitana with ring-in Fine Cotton in 1985.

"The RQ board has decided that Mr Haitana has served his time and therefore give him permission to once again enter a racecourse," Chairman Kevin Dixon said.

Australian Racing Board Chief Executive Peter McGauren said Racing Queensland's decision would be reciprocated around the country, meaning Haitana can enter any race meeting he chooses.

Haitana spent much of yesterday with his doctor, attending to an injured and badly bloodshot eye, but even in darkness he found joy in RQ's decision.

"The news is great and I'm over joyed," he said.

Haitana has admitted previously to attending race meetings incognito, but the thought of legitimately walking onto a racetrack again is something he has longed for over many years, as others associated with the sting had their bans lifted.

"I went to the local pub and was telling people there and they said you've been going to the races for years, so what's the difference?" he said. "I'm just looking forward to being able to spend time with the horses and people again."

The Fine Cotton story continues to be a subject of great fascination in the Australian psyche and Haitana and his family were inundated with media requests after the Sunday Mail broke the story of his likely return last week.

"I haven't had a bad reception from anybody," he said.

"Everyone I have spoken to has wanted to shake my hands."

He turned his phone off yesterday as requests for interviews came both domestically and overseas.

"I couldn't get to sleep on Thursday night because the phone just didn't stop ringing," he told the Courier Mail.

Haitana now lives in South Australia and says he has no desire to return to training, preferring to "back other people's horses" rather than try and prepare slow ones himself.

In the infamous August 18, 1984 sting, the poorly performed Fine Cotton was substituted by ring-in Bold Personality, which edged out Harbour Gold by a nose.

Haitana maintains to this day he would have been able to get Fine Cotton to win a race if he had been allowed to prepare it "properly", but the masterminds of the scam were insistent on a ring-in.