The six-year-old mare was purchased from the facility in April 2020 for just $382.
At that stage, Little Red Fox had run two races before being retired to an equestrian home only to end up in the twin towns.
And that purchase paid off on Friday, January 1 when the apprentice jockey steered the mare to her maiden victory at Burrumbeet, not far from Miners Rest near Ballarat where Lawrence grew up.
It was also Lawrence’s first win carrying her family’s brand new pink and white colours.
“We still haven’t come down from cloud nine,” Lawrence told RSN earlier this week.
“It’s just a maiden at Burrumbeet but for us, given where the horse came from, it was amazing.
“My first contact with Little Red Fox was when I rode her in Adelaide at her second start.
“My sister keeps an eye on the Echuca Horse Sale posts (on Facebook) and she tagged us in a little pony and I just happened to be flicking through the other horses and saw her.
“I sent the post to some of my family and, I think 24 hours later, my younger sister Maddison, my older sister Kaitlin and my mum packed up the float and headed to Echuca to pick her up.
“There is quite a big gap in her life because when she finished racing with Stacey (Kotz, former trainer), she actually went to an equestrian home and we don’t know what happened between the equestrian home and us finding her at Echuca.”
When Little Red Fox did arrive on the Lawrence’s family property, a return to racing looked unlikely.
But as her health continued to improve, the family decided it was time to give it a go with local trainer Emma Collins.
And thanks to Lawrence’s ride, Collins also has her first win as a trainer.
“We bought her to give her a home pretty much, we didn’t buy her as a racehorse,” Lawrence said.
“We have quite a few horses at mum and dad’s place so once she was comfortable, she was put in a paddock with them and we just let her be a happy horse.
“We thought that we might as well see if she still wanted to be a racehorse and at that point my sister Maddi, who is really good friends with Emma Collins, suggested we send her to Emma because she was just getting her trainer's license.
“There was no pressure from us and from the start, if she got to her first run and she wasn’t happy then we’d pull the pin and she could come back and be a pony club horse.”
Lawrence said the horse would now enjoy a well-earned break.
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