Camel racing in the UAE explained: the heritage practice and where it is held

The short answer

Camel racing in the UAE is both an old Bedouin practice and a modern organised sport. UNESCO inscribed it in 2020 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, on a file from Oman and the United Arab Emirates, as "Camel racing, a social practice and a festive heritage associated with camels".[1] The UAE Government portal says races were once staged mainly to mark social occasions such as weddings, community festivals or a sheikh's visit to a Bedouin village, and that racing is now an organised sport with prizes and cash awards worth millions of dirhams.[3]

For a visitor, the official pages describe two sides of it. UNESCO and Abu Dhabi's culture department describe the practice: how camels are chosen, fed, trained and raced, and how the knowledge is passed on. The tourism boards of Abu Dhabi and Ras Al Khaimah describe places to watch. XTOUR publishes no race calendar.

What UNESCO's listing describes

UNESCO's entry is about preparation as much as racing. Camels are selected by type, origin and age, given a special diet, practise on the racetrack in groups and are trained to race. Races are run on specially designed fields under the supervision of specialised community committees; usually fifteen to twenty camels run in each round, and the distance depends on the camel's age. The entry says recognised community traditions, customs and principles govern the races, and that a preparation committee checks each camel's origin.[1]

On transmission, the entry credits community representatives, government institutions, specialised centres and the federation of racing and clubs, and says children and young people learn by observation, simulation and oral expression. It calls racing a fundamental part of nomadic life and a source of inspiration in poetry and song, tied to the role camels play in the desert.[1]

Abu Dhabi's Department of Culture and Tourism carries the same text on its own element page, with the 2020 inscription year.[2] The page sits at an address ending "camel-feeding" while its heading reads "Camel Racing"; XTOUR cites it by its heading.

Why races were held: the official pages differ

The federal portal and the Ras Al Khaimah tourism board give different reasons for the old races. The portal says racing was mainly staged to mark important social occasions: weddings, community festivals and visits by sheikhs to Bedouin villages.[3] Its social-life page adds that camels were raced for fun as a sport, alongside their use for transport, milk, meat, hide and the hair woven into a bisht.[4] Visit Ras Al Khaimah says Bedouin tribes held camel beauty pageants and races for entertainment and as a means of resolving disputes.[7] Dispute resolution does not appear on the federal page, and the occasions the federal page lists do not appear on Ras Al Khaimah's. XTOUR states both.

The same two pages spell the racing breeds differently. The portal names the local Mahaliyat, the Omani Omaniyat, the Sudanese Sudaniyat and the interbred Muhajanat;[3] Visit Ras Al Khaimah lists Mahaliyat, Omniyat, Sudaniyat and Mahajanat.[7]

Racing today, as the Ras Al Khaimah board describes it

Visit Ras Al Khaimah's page for Al Sawan Camel Race Track gives the most detail of any official page XTOUR read. It describes a 10-kilometre sand circuit at Al Sawan in the Digdaga area, near Ras Al Khaimah airport, with three tracks: a main track for the camels and inner and outer tracks for the white 4WD vehicles that follow the race carrying owners and trainers.[7] The federal portal names the city of Ras Al Khaimah as the emirate's capital and lists Digdaga among the emirate's other key towns,[8] so XTOUR places the track in the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah and does not place it inside Ras Al Khaimah city.

The board says races are organised under the patronage of the ruling sheikhs, with luxury cars, trophies and cash prizes at stake, and that 50 to 100 camels may be at the track on a race day. It describes a diet of dates, bran and oats, and a health check for every camel before it races.[7]

On jockeys, the board says every camel at Al Sawan carries a robot jockey, that trainers began using lightweight robot jockeys in 2002, and that the UAE prohibited human jockeys under 15 almost two decades ago. It describes the robots as electronic monitors that log heart rate and speed and carry a two-way radio so owners can urge their camels on.[7] That is the tourism board's account; XTOUR does not describe the law.

On timing, the page says races take place on winter Friday mornings, and its visitor information gives the racing season as September to April with races usually on Fridays.[7] The page carries no dated race calendar, so XTOUR cannot say when a particular race will run.

The Abu Dhabi tracks

Visit Abu Dhabi's camel-racing page is shorter. It names two tracks: the Al Wathba Camel Race Track, on the Al Ain Road east of Abu Dhabi, and the Al Maqam Track near Al Ain. It advises getting to the track as early as possible and states: "Entrance to the races is free."[5] It gives no season, no race days and no times, and XTOUR read no Abu Dhabi race calendar. XTOUR does not place either track inside a city.

The same board describes the Al Ain Camel Market as a working market where visits must be planned in advance and supervised by market staff. The board presents the market as a glimpse of the connection between camels and the region's heritage;[6] it is a trading market, not a racetrack.

What XTOUR does not know

XTOUR does not know this season's race dates at any track, whether the Abu Dhabi tracks follow the same September to April season Visit Ras Al Khaimah gives for Al Sawan, or what facilities any track has for spectators. It publishes no travel times to the tracks. It read no page from a racing federation or a track operator, only the tourism boards' descriptions, and it does not describe the rules that govern racing.