I believe we’ve discovered the culprits, your honour:

So this particular mix-up story centres on two Hayes-trained horses in yesterday’s Bendigo Guineas; Independent Road (No.4), a bay gelding by Declaration of War, who was due to be ridden by Regan Bayliss, but was instead ridden by Jye McNeil, who was booked for the stablemate Peidra (No.9), who is a bay/brown gelding by Pierro.

This time there was no dripping paint on the hooves, because apparently the stablehands didn’t bother to check the brandings.

Fortunately for the integrity of the game, they were both roughies who did sweet stuff all during the race – Independent Road finished 13th of 15 runners, and Peidra failed to beat a runner home.

You have to credit to Bold Personality – 40 years old and probably dead, yet he’s still giving 110%.

Co-trainer Tom Dabernig and one of the stablehands realised the error after the race, then informed the stewards, who disqualified both horses and fined Lindsay Park $3000 under the rules of racing.

As far as attempts to revive Fine Cotton, I give it a 1/10, because they were both too crap to even run in the Top 10.