Leslie's Rose

Leslie’s Rose was purchased by Mandy Pope’s Whisper Hill Farm for $1.15 million as a yearling at the 2022 Keeneland September sale. The Into Mischief filly lived up to her high price in her first start on Nov. 19, 2023 at Aqueduct, rolling to a 9 ¼-length win in a 6 ½-furlong sprint.

Leslie’s Rose returned for a 3-year-old campaign and overcame a poor start to win a seven-furlong allowance optional claiming race by a length Jan. 11 at Gulfstream Park. That set her up for a stakes debut in the Grade 2 Davona Dale Stakes going one mile March 2 at Gulfstream, where Leslie’s Rose finished third as the 3-10 favorite.

Coming off of that defeat, she was overlooked by bettors in her next start, a loaded renewal of the Grade 1 Central Bank Ashland Stakes April 4 at Keeneland. The filly rebounded in her first start around two turns, winning the 1 1/16-mile stakes with a top-of-the-stretch surge under regular jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. and keeping 2023 champion filly Just F Y I at bay by three lengths to improve to three-for-four in her career. She earned 100 qualifying points to the May 3 Longines Kentucky Oaks with the victory.

Leslie’s Rose finished a disappointing 13^th of 14 runners in the Kentucky Oaks held on a sloppy track, which was won in convincing fashion by eventual Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna. She then checked in a nonthreatening second and a distant fourth to that budding superstar in the Grade 1 DK Horse Acorn Stakes and the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks, both at Saratoga, to finish her 3-year-old season.

The now 4-year-old filly returned in 2025 with a good effort in the Grade 3 Vagrancy Stakes May 4 at the Belmont at the Big A meet, closing to just miss winning by a neck and settling for third. She next targeted the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps Stakes Presented by Ford June 6 at Saratoga, and in that race Leslie’s Rose was bumped at the start and did not handle a sloppy track again. She was pulled up by jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. in the stretch.

Leslie’s Rose made her third 2025 start back at Saratoga in the Grade 2, 1 1/8-mile Shuvee Stakes on July 18. With Ortiz Jr. aboard again, she sat in midpack through the backstretch, moved up in the far turn, and outfinished pacesetter Dazzling Move in the stretch to score an elusive second graded stakes victory by 3 ¾ lengths.

Leslie’s Rose is out of the unraced Galileo mare Wildwood Rose, who is a half-sister to Florida Derby winner Materiality and Grade 2 winner, Kentucky Oaks runner-up, and Grade 1 producer  My Miss Sophia.