A specialist stayer she finished unplaced on her only start as a juvenile in 1981 but in the following year she won four races culminating with a victory in the Cesarewitch Handicap over two and a quarter miles.
Mountain Lodge was a "smallish"[2] bay or brown mare bred at the Garrowby Stud in Yorkshire by her owner Peter Wood, 3rd Earl of Halifax.
[4] Mountain Lodge's dam Fiddlededee was a winning stayer who finished third in the Park Hill Stakes and was a daughter of Eyewash, whose other female-line descendants have included Might and Power, Lucky Owners and Beauty Parlour.
The 1983 Irish St Leger, run over one and three quarter miles at the Curragh Racecourse on 8 October, was the first edition of the race to be open to older horses instead of being restricted to three-year-olds.
The best of the other six runners appeared to be the British four-year-old Khairpour, who had finished ahead of Mountain Lodge at Sandown and later won the Geoffrey Freer Stakes.
Little of the early stages were clearly visible but High Cannon appeared to make the running before Arctic Lord led the field into the straight.
Band went to the front in the straight, but Mountain Lodge, ridden by Declan Gillespie, wore down the tiring favourite in the final furlong and won going away by two lengths.