 He showed some promise as three-year-old in 1986, but emerged as a top-class horse in 1987 when he defeated The Derby winner Reference Point in the Eclipse Stakes at Sandown.In 1988, he was the dominant middle-distance horse in Britain, winning a second Eclipse Stakes and taking the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes.Bred by John L. Moore, Mtoto was a bay horse with a white blaze.