Leigh owned and bred her dam, Free At Last, who was a daughter of the 1978 Epsom and Irish Derby winner, Shirley Heights.
A philanthropist with a strong social conscience who was a member of the Council of Management for the Animal Health Trust, Leigh named Free At Last for those words contained in Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 speech, "I Have a Dream".
Leigh later gave another of Free At Last's foals the name of the African American civil rights activist, Rosa Parks.
Entered in the inaugural running of the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf, the parimutuel betting public made Coretta the seventh choice at 16:1 odds.
Retired to broodmare duty, among her matings Leigh bred Coretta two times to Ogden Phipps' stallion Seeking The Gold, naming the foals "Civil Rights" and "Shared Dreams".