From milking camel failure to race champion

By Monique Preston

Jul 28, 2023

Firebelly Em won by a nose in the 1500m Better Beer Cup final at Boulia. Photos: Matt Williams Photo by Matt Williams

When Peter Hodge first got camel Firebelly Em, she came from a camel milking farm at Rochester and had been deemed a failure in the herd.

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“They kicked her out because she was flighty,” Mr Hodge said.

Luckily for Firebelly Em she fitted in much better at Peter and Annette Hodge’s camel farm at Cosgrove and went on to become a camel they could race.

Now she has won the richest and most coveted camel race in Australia.

It has been a quick foray into the sport for Firebelly Em.

Until the Boulia Camel Races she had only been ridden a handful of times and was so wild that she could barely be led around only a few weeks ago.

Now she has competed at three outback Queensland race meetings.

Peter and Annette Hodge travelled from Cosgrove to be among the crowd of about 3300 people who were on hand to see Firebelly Em take out not one but two races at this year’s Boulia Camel Races in the outback Queensland town of Boulia.

With Newcastle jockey Cassidee Sharp onboard, Firebelly Em first won the Quarter Mile Flyer (400m race), before going on to claim victory in the 1500m Better Beer Cup at what is touted as the Melbourne Cup of camel racing.

What made the victory even sweeter was that another of the Hodges’ camels, Regi McCoy, came third in the 1500m race, from the eight camels that made it through from the heats.

Cosgrove’s Annette and Peter Hodge, with jockey Cassidee Sharp and sponsor Callum Wishart, with the spoils of the 1500m Better Beer Cup at Boulia. Photo by Matt Williams

Firebelly Em won the 1500m race by only a nose in what was one of the closest cups run at Boulia.

“I’ve been coming to Boulia Camel Races for 26 years and that’s the greatest finish ever in a cup,” race caller Andrew Saunders said as he announced the winner.

Mr Hodge was particularly pleased with the success, given that Firebelly Em came from second spot to clinch victory in the dying five or 10 metres of the race.

“Some camels like to follow (others). When you get one to race past other camels, that’s really exciting.”

Firebelly Em in action in the Quarter Mile Flyer at Boulia. Photo by Matt Williams

He is especially excited at the fact that both camels were relatively wild on his property only a few weeks ago.

While he had taken them on training runs with saddles and 40kg of weight on them, they had only been ridden about four times — and only over about 50m each time.

“But it’s different when you’ve got a person (riding),” Mr Hodge said.

The Boulia meeting was also only the second time either camel had been raced. The first occasion was only a week earlier.

Five-year-old Regi McCoy also came from the same milking farm at Rochester as Firebelly Em, and was one of six male camels that moved in when the milking farm closed.

Mr Hodge put them all on the track but only Firebelly Em and Regi McCoy will be raced from the camels that came from that property.

The others will eventually be used for camel rides.