They Race Camels, Don't They?

Camel racing is very popular among the locals in Dubai during the winter months, so while my son was here for a short visit we made plans to go. It proved to be more difficult than expected to find out when and where the races are held. I consulted various sources, including the must-have guidebook, Dubai Explorer, and internet sites such as one for the Dubai Camel Racing Club, but details and locations were not available. Apparently the camel racing people do not encourage tourists to visit. My husband's office administrator got us a phone number of a man who should know about the schedule. I called that number and the man who answered gave me another number. I called that number and the man who answered told me there was racing that afternoon at 2 pm, so we were in luck! I wasn't clear on the location he gave me, but it was somewhere off Al Ain Road where the Rugby Sevens stadium is located so I had a vague idea.

Now that my husband decided to come my vague idea of location was not good enough so he asked the Arabic-speaking lawyer in his office to give the camel man another call, and the location with exit information was made more clear. We headed out with plenty of time to spare. We definitely would have missed the exit had we not known which one to take, since there was no signage or stadium visible from the road to indicate that the camel racing track was around the bend. There were, however, long lines of lights and a roadway of sorts that later turned out to be part of the extremely long track for the races. (We had mistaken these rows of lights for a huge parking lot when we passed by the area on the way back from a day trip to Al Ain.)

Driving to the track area, we passed many small groups of men escorting camels in that direction. We parked with one other car in front of what looked like a clubhouse and found some stands with TV's around the back where we took seats. There was no admission charge--no booth of any kind, nor any sign of a concession stand or public toilets. We were the only ones in the stands for quite a while, but we could see a few men praying and other people warming up camels nearby. One man joined us in the stands and asked where we were from but then left us alone. A few other men came and took seats in front of the TV, and we were glad we did not choose to sit there as we would have been in the way. The first race started from an area to our right (we almost missed it!) and then a bunch of men, the ones who seemed to be working with those camels, came to the stands to watch the race on TV. The camels, about 10 in number, headed out straight along the main road away from us, accompanied by a herd of cars driving alongside the track on both sides. From what we had read in the guidebooks, we knew that the men in the cars were the owners, honking their horns and urging their camels on. Each camel had a small robot rider with stick on its back, which apparently was controlled by the owner from the car.

The race track seemed to be in the shape of a very large tear drop, going straight for a long way and then circling to the left and then going a long way straight back finishing in front of the stands where the finish line was put down in chalk. Apparently camels can race longer distances than horses, but maybe they are not as good at turning. We figured the track was about 4 miles long, and it took a good 13 minutes for the first camels to finish, so they may have been going about 20 miles per hour. As they approached the finish line, the cars with the owners peeled away, miraculously avoiding crashes where they got bunched up next to the track, and the men in front of the TV left to collect their respective camels. There wasn't any cheering to speak of, just some occasional clapping and greetings exchanged between the men coming and going. The next race started even before all the camels had finished the first race, but with the track being so long there was no danger of any camel being lapped.

We could not tell if there was any significant difference in the races. The camels in the second race seemed smaller, perhaps younger, and the camels in the third race were a bit faster, but not by much. We also could not tell by looking if the camels were male or female, seeing no obvious male anatomy. One thing was clear--I was the only female person at the track! After three races, we had had our fill and so we left at the start of the fourth race, in time to pass the stragglers on the first straightaway as we drove back along the main road. While it was a memorable sight very worth seeing, we could see why camel racing is not a tourist attraction, from the standpoint of both the locals and tourists.