[1] Tolomeo ran three times as a two-year-old in 1982, finishing second in his first two attempts before recording his first win in a maiden race over seven furlongs at Newmarket Racecourse.
[2] After finishing fourth in the Craven Stakes on his debut as a three-year-old, Tolomeo contested the classic 2000 Guineas over Newmarket's Rowley mile course on 30 April.
Tolomeo next ran in The Derby over one and a half miles on soft ground, finishing ninth of the twenty-one runners, more than twenty lengths behind the winner Teenoso.
Tolomeo was ridden by the Irish jockey Pat Eddery and started at odds of 38/1 in a fourteen-runner field, although British bookmakers were much more cautious and made the colt the 5/1 second favourite.
[1] In a slowly run race, Eddery tracked the leaders John Henry and Nijinsky's Secret before making his challenge in the straight.
When Nijinsky's Secret drifted to the right under pressure Tolomeo accelerated through a gap along the rail to take the lead and held of the late run of John Henry to win by a neck.
In a race which was run in a very strong side-wind, he finished second to the filly Cormorant Wood, but was relegated to fourth for causing interference in the closing stages.
[4] In the official International Classification for 1983, Tolomeo was given a rating of 87, making him the fifth-best three-year-old colt in Europe behind Shareef Dancer, Caerleon, L'Emigrant and Teenoso.