Qualla: Maesa Tompaso Racecourse

Maesa Tompaso Racecourse: Introduction

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The thunder of hooves on volcanic dirt is a sound the Minahasan highlands have known for centuries. In Tompaso, a small district in Minahasa Regency ringed by mountains and geothermal vents, horse racing is not a sport imported by colonizers and then abandoned -- it is woven into the culture of the place. Five villages in West Tompaso District still organize their social life around horses: breeding them, training them, racing them. The Maesa Tompaso Racecourse, a 24-hectare facility with a 1,600-meter right-handed dirt track, is where that tradition meets national competition.

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Maesa Tompaso Racecourse: From Colonial Tracks to National Stages

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Horse racing arrived in Minahasa during the Dutch colonial period, but the Minahasan people made it their own. When Hein Victor Worang served as Governor of North Sulawesi in the late 1960s, he inaugurated racing venues across the province between 1967 and 1968, including tracks ...

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Maesa Tompaso Racecourse: Three Consecutive Championships

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The racecourse's proudest chapter came in 1997, when it hosted the second series of the Kejurnas Kuda Pacu -- Indonesia's National Horse Racing Championship, organized by PORDASI, the national equestrian federation. North Sulawesi's contingent won the event, securing a third cons...

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Maesa Tompaso Racecourse: Dust, Dirt, and Controversy

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The physical track -- 18 meters wide, running right-handed across 24 hectares of volcanic soil -- has undergone multiple renovations. A major overhaul in 2014, funded with approximately 1 billion rupiah by the North Sulawesi Provincial Government through its Youth and Sports Agen...

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Maesa Tompaso Racecourse: Where the Horses Still Run

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

What makes Tompaso unusual is not the racecourse itself but what surrounds it. This is not a facility transplanted into an urban entertainment district. It sits in the Minahasan highlands, where volcanic soil grows exceptional produce and the air is cooler than the coastal cities...

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