Horse Racing in Tunisia

Tunisia's horse racing programme is rooted in the French Protectorate period (1881-1956), when French colonial administration developed formal thoroughbred racing as part of the broader francophone equestrian tradition across North Africa — a tradition shared with Morocco and Algeria. The Office des Élevages et des Courses de Tunisie (OECT) administers Tunisian horse racing under the Ministry of Agriculture, maintaining the national stud book and overseeing racing at the Hippodrome de Kassar Said near Tunis and the Hippodrome de Sousse on the Mediterranean coast.

The Tunisian racing programme reflects both the French colonial legacy and a far deeper indigenous equestrian heritage — Tunisia was the heartland of the ancient Carthaginian empire (814 BC – 146 BC), and North African equestrian culture predates the Arab conquest by millennia. The Barb horse — an ancient North African breed developed by the Berber peoples of the Maghreb — is one of the world's oldest domesticated horse breeds and one of the foundational ancestors of the modern thoroughbred through the 17th and 18th century Arab and Barb imports to England.

Tunisia's racing faces the commercial challenges common to North African programmes — limited prize money, restricted bloodstock imports, and a small domestic ownership community. But the OECT's participation in the IFHA's African Development Initiative and the country's proximity to European racing markets provide development opportunities that distinguish the Tunisian programme from more isolated sub-Saharan African racing nations.

The Barb horse — also called the Berber horse or Barbary horse — is one of the world's oldest domesticated horse breeds, developed by the Berber (Amazigh) peoples of the Maghreb over at least three millennia. The breed's origins predate the Arab conquest of North Africa (670 AD) and the introduction of Arabian bloodlines into the Maghreb horse population — the Barb represents an independent line of horse development from the Arabian breed, despite superficial similarities.

The Barb's characteristics — compact, muscular build, strong hindquarters, low set tail, sloping croup, and exceptional stamina under desert conditions — made it one of the most sought-after military horses in the medieval Mediterranean world. The Moorish conquest of the Iberian Peninsula (711 AD) brought Barb horses to Spain, where their influence on the Andalusian breed was profound. The Barb was subsequently imported to England in the 17th century as one of the foundational breeds of the thoroughbred — alongside the more celebrated Arabian and Turk imports.

In Tunisia, the Barb horse holds a symbolic cultural position that the OECT acknowledges in its promotional material — the breed is featured in the imagery of the national racing programme as a reminder of Tunisia's pre-colonial equestrian heritage, even as the practical racing programme is dominated by imported thoroughbreds. OECT maintains a small Barb breeding programme as part of Tunisia's national horse conservation efforts.

The OECT operates pari-mutuel tote betting at both the Kassar Said and Sousse hippodromes, with on-course and off-course wagering access through licensed outlets in major Tunisian cities. The betting market is primarily domestic — international access to Tunisian racing is not available through mainstream European bookmakers, though specialist North African platforms carry limited coverage of major race days.

Tunisia's position within the IFHA's African Development Initiative includes digital wagering infrastructure as a priority development area. The initiative's goal of bringing Tunisian racing into the digital betting mainstream — through account-based wagering, mobile platforms, and potentially cross-border pool integration with the Moroccan SOREC system — represents a potential medium-term transformation of the betting market available to Tunisian racing fans.