His dam was Hopespringseternal, a daughter of Buckpasser, the 1966 American Horse of the Year and Hall of Fame inductee that became a four-time leading broodmare sire in North America.
[3] Miswaki was purchased and raced by Etti Plesch, a prominent horsewoman in Europe, who as at the end of 2011, is the only female to have won The Derby twice, doing it first in 1961 with Psidium then with Henbit in 1980.
Raced at age two, he made four starts on grass in 1980, winning the Prix Yacowlef at Deauville-La Touques Racecourse in his debut.
For his three-year-old campaign in 1981, Miswaki was sent to race in the United States, where he made nine starts for Hall of Fame trainer Woody Stephens.
The colt won three allowance races plus the ungraded Charles Hatton Stakes at Elmont, New York's Belmont Park.