Samoan Independence Day Part II (A Day at the Races)

Every few months or so, usually on the Saturdays either side of a public holiday such as we’ve just had, they hold a horse racing carnival at the local track. With Amanda’s great love of horses we were keen to get along and have a punt, plus sink a couple of cold beers and soft drinks in the sun.
Most of the horses we’ve seen around the country haven’t been looking too healthy, being of the pack horse variety, so we weren’t too sure if many of them would make it a full lap around the track. As it turned out though there must be a few racehorses tucked away in paddock we haven’t seen, although not too many because each horse had to race a couple of times each to make up the 9 race program.

The main race was race 4, and it turned out being the one that paid for our day with a 20 tala bet on Mama Tui paying us 5 to 1, despite the race caller suggesting the whole race that horse 4 Zeus was the one out front…. Luckily we didn’t rip up the ticket in disgust.


Race 5 did feature the pack horses combined with barefoot rider.

Can’t wait for the next race day coinciding with the tuila festival in a couple of months.