Camel Racing, Is This America's Next Big Gamble?

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Camel Racing, Is This America's Next Big Gamble?

Postby DrakeS » Thu Jul 29, 2010 5:00 am

Camel Racing, Is This America's Next Big Gamble?
Camel racing during the 2009 Camel Cup in Alice Springs. This depicts the eventual winner of one of the heats (photo by Toby Hudson, Wikipedia Commons)
Image
By George Fosty
Sr. Editor,
Boxscore News - New York
July 28, 2010

In 1964, fearing the elimination of the camel from Arab culture, Saudi Arabia's King Faisal bin Abd-al-Aziz authorized the establishment of the first 'official' camel race. Back then, the event was part of the Saudi's Heritage Festival. This first race, a distance of 12-miles, was such a success that it became a regular part of the Heritage festivities. Within a decade, the amateur past-time had become a legitimate sport. With this legitimacy, it also became professionalized. Four decades later, the sport is in eleven countries and employs tens of thousands.

Perhaps the most famous nation for camel racing is the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In the case of the UAE, camel racing season runs six months from late September/early October to March. Most races occur on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from 8 am - 2 pm. They are well attended. At present, there are at least 14,000 racing camels in the UAE. Add the riders, their support teams, and it is easy to see how this once novel sport has become a multi-million dollar enterprise.

During the 1980's the UAE became ground central in camel racing when, under the direction of Shaykh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the Nad al-Sheba racing grounds were built. The Nad al-Sheba Camel Racetrack south of Dubai is, by all accounts, the most famous and beautiful camel track in the world. Its white concrete grandstand is built to resemble a bedouin tent.

With as many as 100 camels competiting in an individual race, Nad al-Sheba races are a sight to behold. The spectacle of these grand animals racing in such a concentrated number is one of the great marvels of modern sports. In the past, the camel jockeys were as young as six-years old. Today, the industry is better regulated and no rider under the age of 15-years and a body weight of 45-kilos (100 pounds) is permitted to compete. It is not a perfect situation but it is a vast improvement from decades past.

Outside of the UAE, the most famous camel race is in Alice Springs, Australia. Held annually, the Lions Imparja Camel Cup is a one-day event consists of 9-separate races. In order to extend the day's celebration, additional festivities are held between contests. These events include belly dancing and rickshaw races. There are also events for kids. The Camel Cup is held at Biatherskite Park on the Central Australian Show Society Grounds. This past year, the contest celebrated its 40th anniversary. Most years, upwards of fifteen camels participate in the contest. The official Alice Springs Camel Cup website describes the participants as follows:

Camels ...temperamental, selfish, terribly unpredictable, very entertaining.
Riders...rough, boys, courageous, girls, brave, a bit crazy?

The Alice Springs Camel Cup dates back to 1970 when two local residents, Noel Fullerton and Keith Mooney, challenged each other to a camel race along the dry Todd River Bed. The event was an immediate hit. By the late 1970s, it had become a permanent fixture of the local Lions Club fundraiser and so popular that it was eventually moved to its current site at Blatherskite Park. Along with the success has come professionalism. The contest has commentators, a viewing tower, phone and pit crews, and self-proclaimed 'professional' camel jockeys. Each year's race winner is awarded the Golden Lions Camel Cup trophy.

Aside from the main race, the highlight of the day is the Imparja Television Honeymoon Handicap, wherein groom's race their beasts half the length of the track, only to stop and pick-up their awaiting brides, before proceeding to the finish line.

Other races are equally popular. 'The Sheikh Zayed International Camel Endurance Race' in Hughenden, Queensland has a cash prize purse of A$50,000. A second contest, the 'Boulia Desert Sands', also in Queensland boasts a purse of A$25,000.

Camels were introduced to Australia in 1840. Today, there is an estimated one-million feral camels living in Australia. So many that the Australian Government has authorized aerial hunting as a way to thin out the herds.

It is unlikely that the sport will ever be successfully launched in North America on the same scale as it has been at the Nad al-Shiba racetrack in Dubai as the cost of establishing such a venue would be prohibitive.

That said, given that this is the age of satellite television and live 24-hour television feeds, it is not out of the realm of possibility that future camel racing events broadcast from Australia, or the UAE, could become part of the North American gaming environment. Afterall, in America when there is a dollar to be made, or wagered, stranger things have happened.

Fascinating Facts About North America's Camel Heritage

‘Camel’ is an Arabic word meaning 'beauty.' Once fully grown, they stand 6'1" at the shoulder and 7'1" at the hump. Camels are native to North America. Hard to believe, but true.

Four million years ago, during the Paleogene Period, they roamed the western plains of the Great American Desert from Nebraska to the Rocky Mountains, and north into the Canadian prairie provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.

Over the millenniums they migrated, eventually reaching Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. In all likelihood, they followed the route of the Ancient Arizona Desert - a stretch of desert that once ran from present-day Arizona, up through British Columbia, and into Alaska. Camels disappeared from the Arizona Desert and later the North American landscape around 10,000 B.C. As to why their sudden departure and disappearance? No one knows. Some scientists blame it on the ancient native tribes over-hunting. Then again, there is always the possibility that disease wiped out the animals, or a long-term environmental disaster (i.e. Ice Age). Whatever the truth, the disappearance of the camel in North America remains one of history’s great mysteries.

Twenty-three bactrian camels were reintroduced to Canada during the 1859 Cariboo Gold Rush in British Columbia. Landed by ship at Gas Town, Vancouver, they were sent inland via steamboat up the Fraser River to the small town of Yale. At the time, Yale was the starting point for the move up into the B.C. interior and to base-camps such as Quesnel and Barkerville.

The experiment failed and the camels were eventually released by departing miners in the Thompson River Valley region near present-day Kamloops. It is more than ironic, and something the miners could not have known, by releasing the creatures onto the Thompson plateau, they were in effect repopulating the region of its original species. The Thompson-Okanagan region of British Columbia is a semi-desert region that remains the only trace of the ancient Arizona Desert outside of the American Southwest. Today, it is home to rare cactus, desert sage brush, and even rattle snakes. Truly one of the most fascinating ecological zones in North America, it was a natural habitat that allowed the wandering bactrians the necessary grasslands, shrubs, and waters for their survival. Although the last of these animals was seen in 1905, near the community of Cache Creek, 52-miles west of Kamloops, some people still hold out hope that isolated descendants may continue to roam the more remote and uninhabited regions of the Thompson.

One thing is known for certain some descendants of these B.C. camels migrated south to Ft. Colville in Washington State. The fate of these animals is unknown. Ft. Colville disappeared in 1910 following a fire. Later, in 1940, the area around the fort was flooded due to the construction of the Grand Coulee Dam.

As early as 1856, the U.S. Army repatriated camels to be used as transport. Later, following the start of the American Civil War, they were captured by Confederate forces wherein they were used to haul cotton to Mexico. Following the defeat of the Confederacy, these so-called 'Union Prisoners' were released back onto the American plains. What happened to these 'veterans' remains a mystery. However, well into the twentieth century, farmers and ranchers across the American West reported camel sightings. The last recorded sighting of the descendants of these forgotten Union Army veterans was by a hiker in 1972 in the Los Padres National Forest.
nice choice of words Kurt. "damn shame" My arent we eloquent. Just wait till someone has a few "choice words " for you, too. Uhhh duhhh...hmmmmh
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Re: Camel Racing, Is This America's Next Big Gamble?

Postby coldharvest » Thu Sep 09, 2010 6:56 am

‘Camel’ is an Arabic word meaning 'beauty.'

.......that is totally fucked in the head.
I know the law. And I have spent my entire life in its flagrant disregard.
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