One of the legendary Michael Roberts’ declared best horses he ever rode, Mtoto just kept improving during the late Eighties and after winning a second Eclipse Stakes in 1988, stepped up in trip for the King George.
Sporting Post reader Lucky Nicolaidis submitted the newspaper cutting of our favourite son Muis receiving his trophy from the Queen.
Up against him was an exciting 3 year old colt called Unfuwain – a son of Height Of Fashion, who had competed back in 1982 and had subsequently been sold to the rising force in racing Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum.
At Ascot the pair had the race to themselves and fought out a terrific battle over the final stages.
Watch the race here:
Trained by the late Alec Stewart for Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum, Mtoto won eight races including the Eclipse Stakes twice, the Prince of Wales’s Stakes twice and the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes.
Mtoto is perhaps best remembered for his narrow defeat in the 1988 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp, where he encountered traffic problems before flashing home to get to within a neck of Tony Bin.
He retired to Aston Upthorpe Stud in 1989 and spent the next 17 years as a stallion in a career where he sired the Derby winner Shaamit and the Ascot Gold Cup hero Celeric.
Muis, now a trainer at Summerveld, won eleven South African championships before his 17 year stint in the UK, where in 1992 he became only the sixth non-British jockey to have won the British Flat Jockey Championship.
Mtoto died at the age of 28 in 2011.
