Jim McMahon

They’re fearless, tireless, and almost never fall off. Even if they were to take a tumble, it wouldn’t bother them. That’s because these sponge-headed jockeys in the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) are robots. Camel racing has been pop-u-lar on the Arabian Peninsula (see map) for centuries. Today, it’s especially prominent in the U.A.E., Bahrain, Oman, and Qatar. A winning camel can earn its owner big money and, until recently, kids as young as 3 or 4 were used as jockeys because of their small size. In fact, thousands of kids were bought or kidnapped from South Asia and Africa and forced into the job before the U.A.E. banned child labor in 2005. To keep their winning edge, camel owners turned to tech. The result: a cheap, simple device with a remote-controlled arm that swings a small plastic whip, and a speaker through which an operator can shout commands to the camel. Use of the robo riders has spread as camel owners noticed faster race times, making the use of child jockeys obsolete. Now, says a racing center manager in Qatar, “If we tell the camel owners that we will let you use a child in the race, they will refuse.”