The camel are off and running western Queensland.
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The three week festival of the hump began in dusty Bedourie, 500km south of Mount Isa, on the weekend.
A crowd of around 500 was well down on previous years due to the week-long delay of the Big red Bash to accommodate headliners Midnight Oil though those that came enjoyed a typical day of fun with pig racing, damper making, mini golf, wood chopping and "old farts" and "old boilers" races to keep everyone entertained.
But it was the camel racing that was the highlight and four heats were held over 400 metres to produce finalists for the Bedourie Cup with those that didn't quite make it, galloping up for the Plate.
In the Plate, Hookemup won for the Woodhouse stable.
Jockey Kyrraley Woodhouse brought Hookemup home with an assured ride with trainer Tom Woodhouse pleased with the performance after a poor run in the heat which ruled the camel out of the cup.
The winning time was 35.63 seconds.
In the big one, the Bedourie Camel Cup it was a new beast that came to the fore.
Glenda Sutton brought four-year-old Hajime (which means "beginning" in Japanese) to the circuit for the first time and it upstaged traditional favourites such as Pete into second place and Uncle Bob into third in a sensational time of 32.43 seconds, the fastest time of the day.
Camel handler Mick Johnston said Sutton had trained Hajime specially for the race having broken it in this year and walked the last 80km with it in the lead-up.
Johnston was unsure if Sutton would back up Hajime to run at the Boulia Camel Races this weekend in the longer distance of 1600m.
"There's some very good camels that race in Boulia," Johnston said.
"The locals will be out in force to win that."
READ ALSO: Madame Butterfly comes to Mount Isa
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