Camels, zebras, ostriches, and the smell of fresh manure filled the fairgrounds at Virginia City for the International Camel and Ostrich Races on Friday night.
Before being permitted to mount their respective animals, jockeys listened to a much-needed safety orientation given by livestock superintendent AJ Augusto, who brought the camels from Kansas.
“We’re out here to have a good time. Have fun,” Augusto said. “But this is a dangerous sport. It says right there in the waiver, you could get run over, you could get maimed, you could get pissed on. It is what it is.”
Augusto shared the winning strategy.
“Hold on tight. Try to get to the line first.”
Hanging on for dear life
Spectators also cheered on a body-slamming competition and kids chasing ducks before KUNR’s Starbuck competed against Ashley Harrell, an associate editor covering California parks for SF Gate, and Dustin Weatherford, a Verdi resident and artist.
At the start line, the jockeys scaled the wobbly metal fence corrals before jumping onto each camel behind its single large hump. Once they verbally signaled they were ready, the gate swung open, and the camels leaped into action.
There was nothing for the riders to hang on to — no stirrups, saddles, or seatbelts, just the thick, curly hair on the camel’s hard hump as the riders charged through the half-circle lap.
To her extreme disappointment, Starbuck came in second place in the nearly 30-second race, following Weatherford.
“That was a very wild ride,” Weatherford said. “A lot more power than I expected from a camel.”
Tradition kicked off more than 60 years ago
It’s fitting that two journalists faced off because that’s exactly how the event started.
According to tourism director Todd Tuttle, camels were present in Virginia City in the past as pack animals. But in 1959, the Territorial Enterprise in Virginia City wrote a hoax article about a camel race. The San Francisco Chronicle republished it.
“It, of course, wasn’t actually fully factual, which was in the spirit of what the Territorial Enterprise, and Samuel Clemens, Mark Twain, often would do well,” Tuttle said. “The San Francisco newspaper picked up the article, thought it was real, and ran it. Wanting to be truthful, they brought a couple camels over here to Virginia City, raced them on C Street, and that began a tradition that we still do today.”
