Prince pays €1.7m for camel

DUBAI’S crown prince paid $2.7 million (€1.7m) for a camel during a desert festival celebrating Bedouin traditions in the emirate of Abu Dhabi, according to state-run media on Tuesday.

The festival also included a camel beauty contest, where thousands of owners strutted their animals in a bid for the top prize of finest overall camel and separate categories related to the age and colour of the camels, in which features such as best neck, head, lips, nose, hump, legs or feet, are judged.

Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the son of Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed, bought 16 camels for $4.5m, including one female camel for $2.7m, the state news agency WAM reported.

The price tag was unprecedented but it was not clear if it was an official record.

The hefty sum was still a fraction of the record price paid at auction for a horse. The Green Monkey, a thoroughbred colt, was purchased at a Florida auction in 2006 for $16m.

There was no indication what Hamdan, Dubai’s heir apparent, planned to do with the animal though female camels are often used for racing. Owning fine camels is also a mark of prestige for the ruling elite in the Persian Gulf.

Abu Dhabi’s ruling family organised the nine-day festival in a bid to preserve the nomadic way of life in the desert that predates the discovery of oil in the region in the 1960s.

More than 17,000 camels from the oil-rich Gulf countries — the Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain — were registered for the beauty contest, which gave out millions of dollars in prize money and more than 100 four-wheel-drive vehicles and pickup trucks, the festival’s managers said.

Abu Dhabi is the capital of the United Arab Emirates and, with the lion’s share of the country’s oil resources, the richest of the seven semi-autonomous emirates that make up the country.

Dubai, the largest emirate in population, has been undergoing an unprecedented boom as its leaders shape it into a financial centre.

Hamdan’s father, Sheikh Mohammed, the ruler of Dubai and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, is the world’s richest owner of thoroughbreds.

He describes his love of horses as “part of my blood, my soul and my history”.

This passion is being severely bruised in his eyes by Irish breeder John Magnier, head of the Coolmore bloodstock empire based near Fethard in Co Tipperary.

The sheikh has often come off second-best in their encounters in the sales ring and on the racetrack.

John Magnier is said to be worth €1.4 billion. Coolmore Stud is estimated to be worth more than €4bn.