PRINCE MONOLULU: HORSE RACING’S ORIGINAL TV TIPSTER | The betting ring’s greatest showman

The original showman of horse racing, once more widely recognised than all of the top jockeys in Britain.

Trending: Ras Prince Monolulu

Often dressed in a headdress of ostrich feathers and other bright clothes, the eccentric, engaging and clever character of Monolulu lit up racecourses across Britain in the mid-twentieth century.
He claimed to be the chief of the Falasha tribe of Abyssinia, Ethiopia but Peter Carl Mackay was in reality born in the Danish West Indies (now the American Virgin Islands) in 1881.
He became famous after tipping outsider Spion Kop to win the Derby at 100-6 (around 16-1) in 1920.
“I've gotta horse to beat the favourite, Spion Kop will win the Derby, put your shirt on it, put your pants on it. And when you win - roast beef, two veg, Yorkshire pudding, and God save the King."
He reportedly made GBP £8,000 on the race; in today’s money around GBP £400,000 (US $543,800).
His betting aptitude and flamboyant personality gained him a huge following thereafter and he became part of the fabric of British horse racing, and eventually a true national treasure.
On 2nd November 1936, the day the BBC launched its television service, he became the first black man ever to appear on British television, that very same day.
He also featured multiple racing films of the era, playing himself usually heard proclaiming his famous phrase “I gotta horse… I gotta horse to beat the favourite” to gather an audience.
Monolulu claimed to be married six times, though only five were documented and only three are truly believed.
He travelled around the world and was actually in Konigsberg [now Kaliningrad], Russia when World War I broke out.
He was held in Ruhleben internment camp near Berlin for much of the war.
That was the life of Prince Monolulu, or at least what he told the world:
He was a lion tamer, fire eater, street dentist, preacher, tribal chief, boxer, prisoner of war and entertainer.
Even in death, he died in extraordinary – and as ever implausible – circumstances.
On Valentine’s Day, 1965, he was visited in hospital by journalist Jeffrey Bernard.
The journalist was looking to interview him and brought along a box of Black Magic chocolate.
Legend has it, Ras Prince Monolulu choked to death on a strawberry cream.
One of life’s great entertainers, the man from the Caribbean brought life to horse racing.

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