Horse racing in Vietnam is best understood as a sport trying to move from memory back into the present. It is not yet a fixture-heavy racing country in the way Japan, Hong Kong, Australia, or Singapore once were. Its identity is more unusual: a former colonial-era racing market with a famous Saigon racecourse, a long interruption, and a modern push to rebuild racing through regulated venues, betting controls, and new infrastructure.
The center of that story is Phu Tho Racecourse in Ho Chi Minh City. Built in the French colonial period and opened in the 1930s, Phu Tho became one of the great sporting and entertainment venues of old Saigon. It was remembered not only as a track but as a social space, a betting venue, and a symbol of a city where racing once had a real public audience. The racecourse later closed to horse racing in 2011, leaving Vietnam with history but not a deep calendar of active professional race meetings.
From Phu Tho to the Lam Dong Revival
Vietnam’s racing identity begins with Phu Tho, but its future is tied to Lam Dong. The Thien Ma – Madagui project in Da Huoai District has been positioned as a new racing, breeding, training, and betting complex, with plans connected to horse racing, greyhound racing, polo, and equestrian activity. In 2025, Vietnamese authorities approved investment policy for the project and permitted regulated betting operations, making Lam Dong the key location to watch for the next phase of Vietnamese racing.
That matters because Vietnam’s racing problem has not been simple lack of interest. It has been the challenge of building a legal, commercial, and operational framework around a sport that depends on betting, horse supply, veterinary systems, training facilities, racing officials, and public trust. Thien Ma – Madagui previously operated temporary racing, but those activities were halted because the project did not yet have betting authorization. The move toward a regulated model is therefore not a small administrative detail; it is the difference between demonstration racing and a viable racing industry.
Racecourses and Racing Venues in Vietnam
Vietnam does not currently have a broad network of active racecourses comparable to established Asian racing jurisdictions. Phu Tho remains the most famous racing site historically, but it is no longer the active professional track that once anchored Saigon racing. Its value today is partly physical and partly symbolic: it marks the place where Vietnamese horse racing had an urban public identity before the sport went into decline.
Lam Dong is the more important modern racing location. The Thien Ma – Madagui project has been described as including a 2,000-meter racetrack and broader equestrian infrastructure, with the location roughly 110 kilometers from Ho Chi Minh City. That distance matters because the project can potentially draw from Vietnam’s largest southern urban market while operating outside the dense city environment that made Phu Tho difficult to sustain in its old form.
If Vietnam develops as a racing market, it will likely do so around one or two highly controlled venues before it becomes a country with many tracks. That gives Vietnamese racing a different shape from places where racing grew through provincial courses or rural fairs. Vietnam’s route is more centralized, more regulatory, and more dependent on whether a modern venue can prove that racing, betting, horse welfare, and entertainment can exist together.
Betting, Results, and Fan Interest
Betting is central to Vietnam’s horse racing future. A 2017 decree created a framework for betting on horse racing, greyhound racing, and international football, but implementation has remained difficult and heavily controlled. More recent discussion has focused on revising and clarifying the rules, including player eligibility, betting limits, payout methods, and the conditions racing enterprises must satisfy before operating with betting.
That makes Vietnam a racing market where the audience may develop through betting and media as much as through traditional racecourse attendance. In mature racing countries, fans often inherit generations of form study, race-day habits, trainer loyalties, and bloodstock language. Vietnam has to rebuild those habits. Results, racecards, form guides, official race broadcasts, and transparent betting systems would all be part of making the sport understandable to a new audience.
There is also a strong entertainment angle. A Vietnamese racecourse would not only be a place for serious horseplayers. It would likely be part of a wider leisure complex, with racing positioned alongside tourism, hospitality, equestrian shows, and controlled wagering. That model fits the way many newer racing markets try to grow: not by copying old British racing culture, but by combining sport, regulated gambling, and destination entertainment.
Horses, Training, and Racing Knowledge
Vietnam’s horse racing revival depends on more than a track. It needs horses, trainers, jockeys, veterinary support, starting-gate staff, handicapping expertise, stewards, and racing administrators. The old Phu Tho ecosystem produced horsemen and racing workers, but decades of interruption mean the modern industry cannot simply pick up where Saigon racing left off.
This is where Lam Dong’s proposed breeding and training elements become important. A racing country needs a pipeline, not only race days. It needs places where young horses can be developed, where jockeys can learn race riding, and where trainers can build consistent racing operations. Without that base, a track risks becoming an event venue rather than a true racing center.
Vietnam’s racing culture also sits beside a wider regional context. Asian racing is extremely strong at the top end, with Japan and Hong Kong setting elite standards in fan engagement, wagering, international racing, and administration. Vietnam does not need to match those markets immediately, but they show the level of organization required if Vietnamese racing wants credibility beyond novelty.
The Future of Horse Racing in Vietnam
The future of horse racing in Vietnam is a test of execution. The ingredients are visible: a historic memory through Phu Tho, a major southern population base, an approved Lam Dong project, and a legal framework that recognizes racing betting under controlled conditions. The question is whether those ingredients can become a stable racing calendar.
If the Lam Dong project succeeds, Vietnam could become one of Southeast Asia’s more interesting racing revival stories. It would not be a traditional racing power at first. It would be a modern, regulated, venue-led market trying to rebuild a sport that once had a strong urban foothold. If it struggles, Vietnam may remain a country where horse racing is remembered more through Phu Tho than followed through weekly fixtures.
Horse racing in Vietnam today is therefore not just about what exists now. It is about the gap between a famous past and a possible future. Phu Tho gives the sport its history. Lam Dong gives it its modern question. The next stage is whether Vietnam can turn racing from a legacy and investment project into a real sporting calendar with horses, fans, results, and race days that matter.