Gone to the Races...

Now that Nancy has dribbled on and on about Egypt and political change in the Middle East (and had a Professor of History tell her he gets his current events from her Facebook status updates), I'd like to bring to your attention to something much more pressing.

The Camel Races.

It's sort of like thoroughbred horse racing, only with camels. And yes, there is just as much money behind the proceedings as you'd find in Kentucky. The distances are longer (the longest race being run over a 22 kilometer track), the starts are not nearly as dramatic (an older mama camel has to run in front of the pack so they all run the same direction), the Sheiks drive their Land Cruisers along beside the track as the camels run, and the jockeys are actually small pod robots which the Sheiks control by remote while driving their Land cruisers beside their camels (They stopped using child slaves as jockeys some time ago).

Here's a picture of the end of the race (the "herd" has thinned considerably) complete with camel drool and lips flopping in the wind:

During the race the handlers come off the track and into the stands (until a Qatari drives them off) to watch the video of the race. The distances are so great that the backside of the track is out of view, so they use video cameras. Most of the handlers are from Sudan - cheap labor and skilled with camels I guess.

And here's a shot of the Lecturer and our Gracie on a reticent and recently retired racer:

Nancy was laughing so hard when the camel squatted down to let her off that she hurt her back (not kidding. Camel riding is a bad business).