Korean Job Discussion Forums

UKsimon · Joined: 01 Nov 2009 Location: Incheon

I am presuming horse racing in Korea isn't as popular as in Japan or even China, but has anyone experienced a race meeting in Korea?

If so, what did you think of it? Would you go again?

And, if you can compare, what was the quality of racing like?

tatu · Joined: 23 Jun 2006

I go to the track in Gwacheon occasionally. I bet on the horses. Not sure about quality but facilities are good. They have a section inside with nice seats for foreigners only which is nice because its non smoking. I like the rabble outside in cooler weather. Nice atmosphere. When its hot I like the air conditioned box in the foreign section.

GoldMember · Joined: 24 Oct 2006

Met a horse trainer from Australia working in Korea. He claimed the horses here are nags. Apparently horses can only be imported into Korea if they are valued at less than $10,000. If correct, that won't get you much.

Hardy Boy · Posted: Sat Jun 05, 2010 4:12 pm Post subject:

I've been to the Jeju horseracing track and had to laugh at how small the horses are! It's like watching donkeys or some sort of miniature park show.

There are bets for win and place but not show. Thousands of people were there, apparently full all year round, the locals flocking to it and gambling away their hard earned money when the track was meant initially for Japanese and Chinese tourists. Some locals aren't happy about that. This is according to a Korean teenage student of mine who plans to be a horse breeder. He's moving to Kentucky later this summer to live with his Korean aunt and Mexican-American husband and after high school will go to a top program in the U.K. for such things.

air76 · Joined: 13 Nov 2007

You can generally expect the quality of pretty much every experience in Korea to be not as good as it is elsewhere (save for eating at Korean restaurants), so keeping that in mind I am sure that the horse track is a reasonably fun thing to do....the sports teams aren't as good, the mountains aren't really mountains, Everland is blah, the lakes and rivers are polluted and generally don't allow for swimming, and so on.

Forever · Joined: 12 Nov 2009

I went to the Horse racing in Gwacheon a few times in 2002.

During that year it was good - because of the FIFA World cup happening and all the tourists pouring into Seoul, the Gwacheon Horse racing tracks had a VIP room only for foreigners.

In the VIP room was great, it had the best view of the track and lots of drinks and food. The service was great.

No Koreans were allowed into the VIP room.

After the World Cup finished, the VIP room for foreigners disappeared and I went back one time and it was just the usual seats in amongst a crowd of Korean men shouting and smoking - so it wasn't fun anymore.

I asked a co-teacher recently where I could go horse-riding in Seoul, and she said the only place was around Gwacheon (around the horse tracks).

Cost is 50,000won for one hour - so I said forget it - thats ridiculous.

edwardcatflap · Joined: 22 Mar 2009

The odds on the races are usually terrible. If you go with a big crowd it's much better to organise the betting amongst yourselves and cut out the bookies