He showed great promise when winning the Leopardstown Stakes on his only start as a two-year-old in 1984 and was regarded as a leading contender for the following year's Epsom Derby.
Leading Counsel was a "big, lengthy"[2] brown stallion with white socks on his front legs bred in Kentucky by his owner, Robert Sangster's Swettenham Stud.
On his first run of the season, he contested the Minstrel Stakes over one mile on very soft ground at the Curragh Racecourse in April and won by two lengths from the Dermot Weld-trained Slane Castle.
The colt was then moved up in class and distance or the Ballysax Stakes at the same course in the following month and sustained his first defeat as he was beaten into second place by Theatrical to whom he was conceding eight pounds in weight.
[7] After an absence of three months Leading Counsel returned in the Persian Bold Stakes over nine furlongs at Phoenix Park Racecourse in late August and got the better of Celestial Bounty to win by a neck.
The 1985 edition of the Irish St. Leger on 8 October was the third running of the race to be open to older horses and attracted a field of six three-year-olds, four four-year-olds, one five-year-old and one seven-year-old.