Fairfax’s Melbourne Cup Sweepstake is fit for the knackers yard
There are some things in Australia you just don’t mess up – and the sweepstake on the day of the Melbourne Cup is one of them.
Which is why there will probably be a stewards inquiry at Fairfax this morning as to how Max Presnell’s Melbourne Cup Sweep guide ended up being quite so lame.
Especially given it’s the one day of the year almost everyone takes an interest in the gee gees and publishers can expect a spike in sales.
While the form guide lists all the runners correctly, the tear-out part used in sweepstakes has two of the runners missing, two repeated and three with the wrong numbers.
Spot the balls up: Fairfax’s Melbourne Cup guide
For starters they’ve got two horses in there twice – Criterion and Grand Marshal – missing out Sky Hunter and Kingfisher completely.
Criterion – one of the more fancied of the runners, is named correctly in the kit as number 2, but then also pops up inexplicably as number 18 – which should actually be Kingfisher.
When it comes to the duplication of Grand Marshal things have gone seriously awry, including the numbering for the one of the favourites Preferment.
Unlucky number 13 runner The Offer is promoted to number 12, with the actual number 12 Sky Hunter missing in action. That sees numbers 14 and 15, Grand Marshal and Preferment, named in number 13 and 14 instead.
Not content with that, they’ve also then repeated Grand Marshal as number 15.
Confused? You will be if you try and use this kit for your office sweepstake and one of these nags comes home.
Fortunately they seem to have noticed the error, and the online sweepstake kit has been amended accordingly.
Dr Mumbo fears this will join the now infamous ‘World is Fukt’ Australian Financial Review front page and the decision to run the AFR Magazine’s Power List with Tony Abbott as number one – two weeks after he was deposed by Malcolm Turnbull – on the pantheon of Fairfax gaffes.
Update 10am: Meanwhile 9News.com.au appears to think that the Melbourne Cup is on Wednesday:
Hat tip: Michael Smyth on 9News.com.au image.
Update 10.10am: Editor-in-chief Darren Goodsir has now tweeted apologising to readers and noting that “bums have been kicked.”
A shocking error @nicchristensen. Sincere apologies to our readers. Bums have been kicked. But could this be an omen bet? Grand Marshall?
— Darren Goodsir (@sirgooddarren) November 2, 2015
I think all the subbies have either been made redundant or are on an extended long weekend
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The problem is that years ago Fairfax management decided that accuracy was not important and therefore there was no need for a fully staffed subs desk.
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Bring back experienced full time in house subs !
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How many of you complaining have been buying the paper in recent years?
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Doubt this was a job for the subs, blame what’s left of the artists/graphics department, or whoever they outsourced this too.
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Good!
If I whipped my dog on the street to make it run I’d be arrested. Horse racing, dog racing , both are cruel, archaic and only exist for gambling.
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Fairfax publications are absolutely fantastic if your only interest is in endless articles entitled “Sydney’s best coffee” or in-depth reporting of last night’s episode of ABC’s Q&A.
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And my Herald on Saturday had the same story (about Woolworths) on pages one and three of the business section, just subbed a little differently. Those of us who used to work so hard in editorial to produce a great newspaper can only weep.
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That reminds me, Mumbrella, when is your sub joining the stable?
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Hi TT,
ASAP hopefully – stay tuned.
Cheers,
Alex – editor, Mumbrella
Hopeless.
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