Tweet from Sydney Morning Herald announces XXXX as winner of Melbourne Cup

IT’S the race that stops a nation — and should have stopped a tweet. Now a major newspaper is red-faced after announcing a baffling Melbourne Cup winner.

Kerrin McEvoy crosses the post on Almandin, narrowly beating Joao Moreira on Heartbreak City. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

IT’S the race that stops a nation — and should have stopped a tweet.

The race to get the news out first on social media has never been hotter and the digital sport team at the Sydney Morning Herald were burnt today by being a bit too quick on the button.

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Moments after Almandin passed the post first to claim a thrilling win in the Melbourne Cup, the SMH fired out a Tweet to announce the result.

Unfortunately, the news the paper’s followers received was that “XXXX has won the 2016 Melbourne Cup ahead of XXXX and XXXX.”

Not a lot of help when checking how your horse finished in the office sweep.

Oops. The offending SMH tweet.

The tweet was deleted, but not before it had created a story of its own on Twitter.

XXXX wins #MelbourneCup ahead of XXXX and XXXX. Congratulations XXXX!#MelbCupCarnival #MelbCup #Melbcupday #melbournecup2016 pic.twitter.com/dblGNoAY9f

— Dave Earley (@earleyedition) November 1, 2016

Who the XXXX is responsible for this? pic.twitter.com/Z6dwaTAmoD

— Chris Urquhart (@chrisurquhart) November 1, 2016

Originally published as Tweet from Sydney Morning Herald announces XXXX as winner of Melbourne Cup