In the spirit of Christmas and New Year, the Samoa Racing Club held its last tournament of the year, and a portion of any profits was to be donated to the Home for the Aged at Mapuifagalele.

Held at the Samoa Racing Club in Tuanaimato, the event brought together the business community as well as family and friends on Saturday to watch and bet on the nine races of the day. The tournament was the last of the four tournaments held this year.

Vice President of the Samoa Racing Club, Lesa Richard Keil told Samoa Observer that it was an amazing day for the club, as well as the race participants to celebrate and enjoy the camaraderie amid the festive season. 

"It's nothing unusual but today it's quite a good crowd. Every Christmas is always a profitable day for us because it's usually people overseas visiting and our local people always supporting us," he said.

"The cause of our racing is to get some money and a portion of our profits goes to Mapuifagalele so I assume that a lot of people that support us, they give donations and we get sponsors because of the good cause that we do."

One of the youngest jockeys who competed in the race was Ricky Itulagi, a 12-year-old boy from Aleisa who has been racing for about a year now.

He won two of the nine rounds of the tournament on Saturday.

According to Lesa, the proceedings collected from the annual race are always donated to the Home for the Aged and normally total over SAT$2,000.

He also thanked their major sponsors Vailima and other companies that supported the sport since the start. This time last year, the club also donated to the Mapuifagalele which coincided with Thanksgiving Day.

The Samoa Race Club started at the Apia Park complex and later moved to Tuanaimato to make way for rugby and other sports at the national park.

The club is a non-profit organisation and is made up of a group of individuals who share a love for horses and the sport of horse racing.

The club will later finalise their proceedings from the race and announce how much they will be donating to Mapuifagalele this Christmas.