MTOTO MAGIC MADE A MARK

Graham Buddry looks back on the mercurial career of a horse who probably won’t ever get the acclaim he deserves

- Graham Buddry

Before we had every other horse in English racing bearing an Arab name we had perhaps the only horse ever to have a Swahili one and he was one hell of a horse.

Meaning “child”, “little boy” or “baby”, Mtoto, with his big white blaze was foaled on April 1, 1983 and eventually bought by second season trainer, Alec Stewart, for 110,000 guineas.

By Busted, a brilliant horse in his own right who also sired Bustino among others, Mtoto was exactly what Stewart was looking for and would run in the distinctive all yellow with black epaulettes colours of Sheikh Ahmed Al-Maktoum.

All the hopes began at Yarmouth where the two year old finished third yet during his next piece of work he chipped a bone in his near hind fetlock so that was it for the season.

Left in his box through the entire winter so the bone could heal properly Mtoto developed a foot problem where his hooves wouldn’t grow. The vets tried everything they could think of but to no avail as he simply couldn’t keep shoes on. In desperation an expert was flown in from America to put “hoof bound” on him but that didn’t work either.

A handful of runs garnered just one success in a maiden event at Haydock before Stewart sent his charge to the meadows of Kildangan stud in Ireland for the winter of 1986/87 and somehow the moisture in the rich ground cured the problem.

After his return, Stewart always ensured he stood on peat moss at home with a special ointment applied to the top of his coronet band regularly to keep moisture in his feet.

As a four-year-old in 1987 everything suddenly fell into place. His feet were far better, he had learned to relax at last, especially in small fields, and suddenly a superstar was appearing from the chrysalis of mediocrity.