Climate activists sabotaged the Melbourne Cup a mere couple of hours before the horse race was scheduled to begin.
In videos shot by the activists themselves, a man can be seen pumping an 'oily' sludge on to the Flemington racetrack in Australia.
The activists were reportedly protesting the decision by the racetrack to build a wall around the course in anticipation of floods.
They allege that due to the wall, flooding in residential areas was worse, and that it could lead to further damage in the future.
Videos of the sabotage were posted to Twitter by a group called Extinction Rebellion Victoria, a climate action protest group.
The group endorsed the actions of the saboteurs, claiming: “The privileged in our society are on notice that as crises deepen and we do not see justice for communities, individuals and animals, ordinary people will be driven more and more to undertake these sorts of desperate actions."
BREAKING: This morning XR was contacted by friends who had dumped 1000 liters of sludge onto Flemington Racecourse ahead of today’s Melbourne Cup activities. Footage of this and a press release are attached. @FlemingtonVRC @XRVicAus @BBCNews @7NewsMelbourne @10NewsFirstMelb pic.twitter.com/hzNv3tL4Le
— XRVicAus (@XRVicAus) November 1, 2022
Two races had already been run by the time news of the sabotage broke.
Flemington Racetrack confirmed that after some remedial work to get rid of the sludge, the cup was back on track.