By Dr Tony Monda
The 2024 edition of the prestigious Castle Tankard was held at the Borrowdale Race course on Saturday, May 11, 2024.
Twelve runners participated in this, the oldest sponsored horse racing event in Africa; bankrolled by Zimbabwe’s largest brewer, Delta Corporation to the tune of $50 000. The day was packed with excitement as the finest horses jostled to win the ultimate trophy.
In addition to the favourites, Ideal View, Raffles and Dindingwe who finished second in 2023 just ahead of the absent Down-To-Business; Tradition, Admirals Chance, Jack Sparrow, Citrusidal, Wantage, Holy Land and Majestic Warriors competed in the Castle Tankard horse race. The winning horse took home $25 000.
Horse racing is one of the oldest and most respected sports. It has been an organized sport for all major civilizations around the globes since the beginning of recorded history. Its origins date back to circa 4500 BC among the nomadic tribesmen in the north of Africa and of Central Asia where the horse was first domesticated.
Horse racing and harness racing were one of the most popular games in ancient Greece and Rome. The ancient Greek Olympics had events for both chariot and mounted horse racing, likewise in the Roman Empire. Horse racing has since flourished as the world’s ‘Sport of Kings’.
The first horse race meeting in (Rhodesia) Zimbabwe took place in 1889, when a detachment of Royal Horse Guards arrived in Gubulawayo/Bulawayo with a letter to Lobengula from Queen Victoria of England to declare the granting of the Royal Charter to the British South Africa Company.
To celebrate the event a horse race meeting was arranged as entertainment for Lobengula, and for which race Lobengula entered his own horses. The meeting included a Zambezi Plate and a Gubulawayo Handicap.
With the arrival of the Pioneer Column in 1890, horse racing became a very popular sport amongst the white settler community. Here, Cecil Rhodes’ close friend and associate, Dr. Leander Starr Jameson became a leading light in the formation of a turf club in Salisbury (Harare).
When Lord Randolph Churchill travelled a on safari to (former Rhodesia) now Zimbabwe, he challenged his horse against all commers. A pioneer accepted his challenge and won the race.
Gymkhanas, held in conjunction with race meetings, were very popular in the early years of colonial occupation resulting in the establishment of the gymkhana clubs in Salisbury (Harare) and Umtali (Mutare) in July 1891; renamed as the Mashonaland Turf Club a year later in 1892.
But it was not until 1897 that the first full turf club meeting was held. Turf clubs were also formed in Bulawayo and Fort Victoria (Masvingo), in 1893; in Gwelo (Gweru) in 1897, and in Selukwe (Shurugwi) in 1899.
From 1900, to the First World War (1912-1916), the white settlers showed little interest in horse racing and turf clubs went out of existence until horse racing began again in the early 1920s in Salisbury (Harare) and Bulawayo. The Mashonaland Turf Club was reestablished in 1922. The sport developed slowly, and not until 1925, when a meeting was held in honour of the visiting Prince of Wales that horse racing in the country took off.
In 1965, the Bulawayo Turf Club was closed, until 1971, when the club was reformed.
Horse racing in the country suffered a further setback during the Second World War (1939-1945), until 1960, when the then Rhodesian Breweries (now Delta Beverages), put up a stake of £5 000 for the ‘Castle Tankard’. It became the first sponsored race in the country.
In 1972, the stake for the Castle Tankard was increased to £15 000; making the Castle Tankard the most important event on the Rhodesian calendar. The Castle Tankard continued to take place in Zimbabwe after the attainment of independence in 1980, and is still run as the Natbrew Tankard, which together with the July Handicap and the OK Grand Challenge are the most popular sporting events on Zimbabwe’s sporting calendar, attended and enjoyed by all race.
One of the most popular spectator sports in Zimbabwe, horse racing is run as a club by elected Stewarts. By the mid-1980s the Mashonaland Turf Club (MTC), alone reflected an annual turnover of over $36 million, with the Bulawayo turf club reflecting an annual turnover of $300 000.
The increasing popularity of horse racing over the years amongst all races in Zimbabwe has led to a number of races being sponsored. The commensurate increase in prize money over the years has resulted in the improvement of the bloodstock.
Horse racing is one of the few forms of legal gambling throughout most of the world today, including in the United States, where it was officially recognized as a sport in 1868. By 1890, there were 314 horse race tracks across the USA. This phenomenal growth brought criminal elements to horse racing and the need for a national association – American Jockey Club, which was founded in 1894 by the biggest track and stable owners.
The first racetrack in American was built on Long Island in 1665. Today horse racing is one of the most widely attended spectator sports in America, attended by millions of people betting billions of dollars.
Horse racing today is a popular sport in Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, the Middle East, South America, Australia, Southern Africa and elsewhere around the globe.
Millions of spectators fill the stands, from the Cheltenham Festival, Kentucky Derby, Melbourne Cup, the Craven Stakes, the Vodacom Durban, the Castle Tankard, and more, to witness some of the most incredible horses thunder towards the finishing line.
The origins of modern racing began in the 12th century, by English knights returning from the Crusades with speedy Arab horses.
During the subsequent four centuries, an increasing number of Arab stallions were imported and bred to English mares in order to produce horses that possessed both speed and endurance. Here, the nobility would wager privately on match races between the fastest of these horses.
The first recorded race meetings in England were during the reign of Henry II at Smithfield, London, held at the annual St Bartholomew’s horse fair. For the next three centuries numerous records attest to Kings of England keeping ‘running horses’. King Edward III bought horses at £13 6s 8d each, and was given two by the King of Navarre. The royal stud continued to grow throughout the reign of Henry VII. He imported a large number for breeding and passed a number of laws relating to the breeding of horses. Henry VIII also kept a training establishment at Greenwich and a stud at Eltham.
The oldest horse race still in existence today, is the Kiplingcotes Derby in Yorkshire, UK, which was first run in 1519. By 1540, racing had been established at Chester, the oldest surviving racecourse in England.
During the reign of Queen Anne (1702-1714), horse racing in England began to develop into a professional sport and match racing evolved into multi-horse races on which spectators would wager. Racecourses emerged all over England, offering increasingly large purses to attract the best horses. These purses made breeding and owning horses for racing more profitable.
Betting on the outcome of horse races has been the main appeal of the sport since the onset, and is the sole reason horse racing has survived as a major professional sport even in former colonies in southern Africa including Zimbabwe.
The rapid growth of the sport created the need for a central governing authority, thus in 1750, racing’s elite met at Newmarket to form the Jockey Club – an organization which still regulates English racing today.
The Epsom Derby which became the “greatest turf event in the world”, was inaugurated on 4 May 1780, on Epsom Downs in Surrey, England, set to be run over only 1 mile. In 1784 the race was run over its now familiar distance of 1 mile 4 furlongs – 2,420 metres. Initially, the Derby was run on a Thursday in late May or early June, depending on the occurrence of Easter.
The first running of the Derby was sandwiched into a programme that also included cockfights. In fact, Lord Derby himself was known to prefer cock-fighting to horse racing. Moreover, in those days, the journey from London to Epsom took around 12 to 14 hours over difficult roads.
Since then, it has become Britain’s richest horse race, and the most prestigious of the five British Classic Races – the Classics, sometimes referred to as the “Blue Riband” of the turf. The Derby is one of Britain’s great national sporting events with a large worldwide TV audience.
The Epsom Derby has also inspired more than 140 other horse races around the world, including the famous Kentucky Derby, the oldest in the USA; the Derby Italiano; the Deutsches Derby; the Irish Derby; the Australian Derby; the New Zealand Derby; the Tokyo Yūshun, and the Prix du Jockey Club, popularly known in the British Isles as the “French Derby”.
The Delta-sponsored Castle Tankard is a family event that brings together thousands of people, including visitors and should be fully supported and embraced in the spirit of regional integration and the growth of the sport.
DrTony M. Monda holds a PhD, DVM, and a MPVM. E-mail tonym.MONDA@gmail.com
About Author
