Dingaan remembered as shooting stars go into battle

The Grade 2 Dingaans is the main supporting feature race of the day, with promising young Highveld-trained horses galloping to establish a provisional pecking order for the three-year-old “classics” that lie ahead.

It has been this way for more than 50 years – though the Dingaans race name is even older. The earliest record I can find is from 1920, when a Dingaan’s Handicap, run at Turffontein, was won by a horse called Make Believe. Back then, the race was open to all comers, but conditions changed down the years with restriction to precocious three-year-olds arriving in 1960.

But where does Dingaan – or, more correctly, Dingane – fit in?

The race used to be run on 16 December, the anniversary of the Battle of Blood River, which was declared a public holiday in 1910 and named Dingaan’s Day.

It’s a day that was of importance to Afrikaners, whose forebears, in a party of trekkers under command of Andries Pretorius, defeated Zulu impis at Blood River in 1840.

Dingane was the Zulu king who commanded his army to attack the Boers’ well-defended laager beside what was then known as the Ncome River. It was a bad mistake. About 3,000 Zulus were killed; three trekkers were injured.

Before the battle, Pretorius led his people in prayer, asking God for divine help and vowing to keep the day holy in recompense. It’s not clear if God’s cavalry arrived, but the Ncome ran with the blood of slaughtered Zulu warriors.

Truth is, the trekkers didn’t need God as they were armed to the teeth with guns and were lusting for revenge after some previous with Dingane. Two years’ earlier, the king had slaughtered trek leader Piet Retief and his party during an ostensibly diplomatic visit to the royal palace at uMgundgundlovu – declaring them to be aba thakathi (wizards).

They were rough old times. And, as the Union of South Africa was formed, the Afrikaners were given a public holiday on 16 December. In the 1980s, at the height of Nat government arrogance, Dingaan got the boot and it became the Day of the Vow, then later the Day of the Covenant. Now it’s the Day of Reconciliation.

It seems surprising Dingane’s name was ever invoked. History accords the bloke little honour. By many accounts, he was impetuous and violent to his own as well as whites. His impis were smashed, the Zulu nation weakened and he was deposed and assassinated by his half-brother Mpande.

Meanwhile, back at the races, Dingaan lives on – far from the battlefields of KwaZulu, moved to a different date and with no mention of how an irascible king of yore fits in.

Yet, it’s a venerable event, having launched the careers of many champion horses. The great Politician won it in 1976, while other notable victors have included Welcome Boy, Riboville, Hunting Tower, Oracy, Singapore Sling and Hawwaam.

The last named is still building a big reputation, and his trainer, Mike de Kock, never one to rest on laurels, follows up this year with two very smart pretenders. Frosted Gold and Marshall top the betting boards at 12-10 and 28-10 respectively and no one would be surprised to see a De Kock Exacta.

However, young horses can improve quickly and unpredictably, so – unlike the Battle of Ncome River – the outcome is far from foregone.

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