he recovered so well from the foot problems which dogged his early career that when he went to stud, he did so as the winner of the king george vi and queen elizabeth stakes, and double winner of both the eclipse stakes and prince of wales's stakes. he very nearly added the prix de l'arc de triomphe to this list too. mtoto got off to a slow start on the track. by the end of his three-year-old campaign, he had won only once, and that was a small maiden race at haydock park. his first important success came as a four-year-old in the brigadier gerard stakes at sandown park. in his final year, 1988, he ended a previously unbeaten season with an unlucky, fast closing neck second to tony bin in the arc. jockey michael roberts was blamed by many for poor positioning in this final race, mtoto rounding the home turn into a short straight behind a wall of horses, in one of the largest arc fields ever assembled.