The Starr Jameson Trophy 1950
The Leander Starr Jameson Trophy, commissioned in 1895, is the most beautiful trophy in racing. It was presented by Dr Leander Starr Jameson KCMG CB to the Matabeleland Turf Club when he was Administrator of Rhodesia (1891-96) and initially awarded to the winner of the Bulawayo Summer Handicap run on 26th December 1895 and thereafter remained a floating trophy.
It was on 4 days after Boxing Day, that Dr Jameson KCMB CB, who was also President of both the Mashonaland and Matabeleland Turf Clubs, launched the infamous Jameson raid, which sought to unseat the Transvaal government, but also sparked the first Zulu War of independence in Rhodesia.
Jameson, a surgeon, had been physician to President Kruger as well as Chief Lobengula, who made him an Induna for curing his gout. Subsequently pardoned by the British, Jameson became Prime Minister of the Cape Colony (1904-1908). Jameson’s personal qualities were the inspiration for Rudyard Kipling’s great poem ‘IF’.
His Trophy, now the property of the Mashonaland Turf Club has been kindly loaned to Cape Thoroughbred Sales as the annual floating trophy for this Cape Premier Yearling Sales Guineas, a fitting trophy for a race bound in tradition, honour and history.
“IF” by Rudyard Kipling
“IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
‘ Or walk with Kings – nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!
