赛马(sài mǎ) - horse racing in Mandarin

赛马 (sàimǎ) is "horse racing", both the sport and the event itself. 赛 (sài) means "to compete" or "a competition" and 马 (mǎ) is "horse", so the compound reads straightforwardly as "horse competition".

It works as a noun for the sport as a whole, as in 看赛马 (kàn sàimǎ), "to watch horse racing", and also slots into compounds like 赛马场 (sàimǎchǎng), "racecourse". An English speaker's instinct is to reach for 骑马 (qímǎ), "to ride a horse", when they mean the spectator sport, but that describes the riding itself rather than the race.

Culturally, 赛马 (sàimǎ) carries real weight in parts of China, especially among Mongolian and Tibetan communities, where horse racing festivals are a long-standing tradition rather than an import.