A self-admitted ‘problem gambler’ has broken into the Flemington Racecourse hours before the Melbourne Cup to pour a strange substance on the track.
Alarming footage showed at least two people running onto the track in Flemington at about 6am on Tuesday to spray a dark liquid over the course in apparent protest against the Victoria Racing Club.
The substance has not officially been identified but was labelled ‘oily’. One person has surrendered themselves to police.
The VRC confirmed officials cleaned a section of the track around the 1500 marker on Tuesday morning and said it was safe for the race to continue.
Climate action protest group Extinction Rebellion in Victoria said on Tuesday 1,000 litres of ‘sludge’ had been dumped onto Flemington by ‘friends’ of the group.
‘We fully endorse the message of this person,’ the group said.
‘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 drive more and more to undertake these sorts of desperate actions.’
The person who broke onto the track released their own statement via Extinction Rebellion which claimed they were ‘a problem gambler’.
© Provided by Daily Mail The ‘problem gambler’ protester (above), with the aid of at least one other person, filmed as they sprayed a dark-coloured unknown liquid near the 1500 marker of the Flemington track
© Provided by Daily Mail Video showed the person spraying the sludge onto the track
Two races had already run by the when news of the protest emerged.
The Simon Zahra-trained colt Krakarib, ridden by Damien Thornton, won the first race of the day, taking the Group 3 Darley Maribyrnong Plate.
Thornton later said he was proud of the result but was excited to improve.
‘He (Krakarib) did a little bit wrong. He’s got a few attitude issues but if you can iron them out, he’ll be alright. It laid out well, he jumped OK. Wasn’t worried, just wanted to get him into the rhythm, and relax and cruise down,’ he said after the race.
White Marlin trained by legendary horse figure Gai Waterhouse took out the second race by more than five lengths.
Ridden by Tim Clark, the horse had eye of many punters taking $2.30 bets.
‘He (White Marlin) is the real deal and I hope we will see him here this time next year. My husband (Robbie Waterhouse) spotted him. He came to Australia, and quite a few people wanted a white or grey horse but he has just grown so much. A perfect way to start Cup day,’ said Waterhouse after the race.