Camel Races

Lining up getting ready for the race to start

Kneeling down for the start

The Camel Cup, an event that has been going on here in Alice since 1970 was this Saturday and what a sight it was!  I think honestly it is more of a social scene than anything else, but the races were hilarious.  There were about 9 races in all and the jockeys were basically anyone who wanted to do it and had on the right kind of shoes (boots).  Each race had at least one camel that would either not line up at the start or would not run the race at all.  We saw camels running in the wrong direction as well as camels that threw their riders to the ground.  One of the highlights was the bride/groom race, the groom had to ride halfway around the track and then pick up his bride, you can imagine getting the camels to stop mid track and kneel down to pick up another rider was rather comical!  There were rickshaw races and kids races on a wooden stick camel between the camel races.

Between 2 of the races they brought out 2 of the floats they use during the Henley on Todd festival (a boat race in a dry river bed) in August, it was Navy versus Vikings in a water fight - this was a highlight for Jake and Dillon.  Dillon swears that the Navy won this water challenge.

We read in the program that in 1987, Camel races began in Virginia City, Nevada after a group of Americans came to Alice to check out the races here.  I understand their camel races also include emu racing as well as bull racing.  For the next 23 years there was a friendly Australia versus America competition at each of the races.