Phu Tho Racecourse

Phu Tho Racecourse in the Tan Binh district of Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) is Vietnam's most historically significant horse racing venue and the centre of the country's relaunched domestic racing programme. The track's origins lie in the French colonial period, when the Cercle Hippique de Saigon developed a formal horse racing programme as part of the colonial administration's sporting infrastructure during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The track operated through the colonial period, the First Indochina War, and into the Republic of Vietnam era — horse racing was one of the few gambling-adjacent activities permitted in Saigon, and the Phu Tho oval was a significant social institution during the pre-reunification era. After the 1975 reunification, horse racing was effectively suspended as part of the broader policy shift away from activities associated with the previous regime and with gambling. For four decades, the track existed in a state of maintenance without active racing, used occasionally for other sports. The landmark legal change came in stages: Vietnam's government authorized licensed horse racing with pari-mutuel betting for Vietnamese citizens as part of a controlled gambling legalization programme — a policy whose pilot phase was approved in the late 2010s and fully implemented by 2022. The Phu Tho relaunch in 2022 restored thoroughbred flat racing to Ho Chi Minh City after a 47-year absence, creating genuine national sporting interest. The Vietnam Racing Association (VRA) manages the programme under government oversight, and the track operates a year-round programme with racing typically on weekends. The track's turf oval, maintained by the VRA's dedicated groundskeeping team, provides racing conditions appropriate for thoroughbred flat racing in Ho Chi Minh City's tropical lowland climate.