The UAE recently hosted its first camel race with female jockeys. Eight women competed with each other on a 1,200m-long course track. Sarah Collins from New Zealand won the race. This race took place at the Al Marmoom Racetrack in Dubai after the Dubai Camel Racing Society approved all the female participant’s racing licenses.
“For me, this was more important than winning. Even now, when we are training, our male peers will stare and [film] us because they have never seen women race camels before. The pressure to prove ourselves outweighed any competitive angle and, more importantly, we gained a level of respect that we hadn’t received before” said Sarah.
Sarah is originally a horse racer from New Zealand. She joined the Arabian Desert Camel Riding Centre in May and started to train for the race. “I had always wanted to learn how to ride a camel properly, to gallop on a camel, but I never dreamt I would make history by winning the first-ever licensed female race.”
