Camel racing technology

You know what a typical racing camel costs? About £700,000. When I met my first racing camel, I pointed out to its owner - a local Sheikh who is also the brother of the Emir (Qatar's King) - that you could buy a collection of Ferraris for that price. He replied: "I've got one of those too". Fair enough. Anyway, camel racing is a Qatari passion but a hobby reserved for the extremely wealthy (there's no money to be made, since gambling is illegal). Tactics are limited - since they all run in a straight line - so owners used to gain advantages by using smaller jockeys. Unfortunately, these tended to be young Philippino boys who would frequently get injured in collisions between these souped-up ruminant mammalian speed machines. So, the government reluctantly banned the use of human jockeys. Enter the 'Robot Jockey' (look closely at the picture above). Sounds impressive, right? Envisioning something out of a Sci-Fi movie? Think again. Despite the reported $1bn invested in technologies to replace the young Philippinos, the accepted alternative is now......a cordless drill. Mounted on the camel's back in a wooden shoe-box. With a plastic whip jammed in the chuck. The owner simply drives madly alongside his camel waving a remote control out of the window. When he wishes to 'motivate' his entrant, he simply presses the remote; activating the drill; which whips the hapless beast into a state of acceleration. To be fair, the owners do at least dress up the boxes in jockey uniforms. With matching hats. I'm sure the camels are delighted.