Condessa was a "small, rather lightly-made"[2] chestnut mare with a diamond-shaped white star bred in Ireland by D de Vere Hunt.

She was a great-granddaughter of the influential broodmare Carpet Slipper, whose other descendants have included Big Brown, Val de Loir, Petoski, Golan, North Light and St Jovite.

[7] As a yearling Condessa was offered for sale at Goffs and was bought for 13,000 guineas by the then little-known Irish trainer Jim Bolger on behalf of Paddy Barrett.

Ridden by Declan Gillespie she appeared outpaced in the early stages and was in last place entering the straight but than began to make good progress.

When moved up to Group One level for the Irish Oaks at the Curragh Racecourse on 18 July she was not expected to be suited by the firm ground and started a 16/1 outsider but ran well to finish second of the ten runners behind the odds-on favourite Blue Wind.

The joint-favourites were the Nassau Stakes winner Go Leasing and the Henry Cecil-trained Home on the Range, with Condessa next in the betting on 5/1 alongside her fellow Irish challenger Overplay.

At this point, the outsider Silken Knot fell heavily, sustaining a fatal injury and throwing her jockey Willie Carson to the ground.

The filly began to make progress in the straight but was still only fifth behind Leap Lively, Fiesta Fun, Home on the Range and Overplay a furlong from the finish.

[2] Condessa was beaten in her three remaining races in Europe: she finished third to Gilded Vanity and Countess Tully in the Brownstown Stakes at the Curragh in August, sixth behind Alma Ata when favourite for the Park Hill Stakes at Doncaster Racecourse in September and eighteenth of twenty-four behind Gold River in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp Racecourse on 4 October.