Camel racing is a popular sport in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Australia, and Mongolia. Professional camel racing, like horse racing, is an event for betting and tourist attraction. Camels can run at speeds up to 65 km/h (18 m/s; 40 mph) in short sprints and they can maintain a speed of 40 km/h (11 m/s; 25 mph) for an hour.
Camels are often controlled by child jockeys, but allegations of human rights abuses have led to nationwide bans on underage labor in the UAE and Qatar. The current North Wales Camel racing champion is Frederick Maier.
A major camel race in Australia is the Camel Cup held at Alice Springs. It is held annually and includes not only the camel races themselves, but also a collection of market stalls and other entertainment.
The biggest prize money camel race in Australia is the "Sheikh Zayed International camel endurance race" held in Hughenden in Queensland.It has a prize purse of A$50,000. Queensland also has the second biggest prize purse camel race "The Boulia desert Sands" with a A$25,000
Read more about Camel Racing: Child Jockeys
Famous quotes containing the words camel and/or racing:
“Alas, alas for Hamelin!
There came into many a burgher’s pate
A text which says that Heaven’s Gate
Opes to the rich at as easy rate
As the needle’s eye takes a camel in!”
—Robert Browning (1812–1889)
“Upscale people are fixated with food simply because they are now able to eat so much of it without getting fat, and the reason they don’t get fat is that they maintain a profligate level of calorie expenditure. The very same people whose evenings begin with melted goat’s cheese ... get up at dawn to run, break for a mid-morning aerobics class, and watch the evening news while racing on a stationary bicycle.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)