But not even a snow storm would have wiped the smile from his face after Gallant Defender handled his first start in rating 65 company with aplomb at Wingatui yesterday.
Lawrence was unable to attend the meeting on October 22 when the 4yr-old won a 1400m maiden, but both he and fellow owner Diana Duff-Staniland, Lawrence's mother-in-law, were on course yesterday to see the son of Gallant Guru win in style by half a length.
Lawrence bought Gallant Defender at the 2013 South Island sales out of the White Robe Lodge draft and gave the horse back to co-breeder Brian Anderton and his son, Shane, to train.
''I really liked him at the sales - he was a nice big horse there,'' Lawrence said.
''He's just taken a bit of time. We thought he was going to make a nice 3yr-old but he was probably just a bit too big.
''He just got beaten at Omakau [in January] and he wasn't quite the same after that so we gave him a good break and [he's] come back good.
''He's big and strong now but he's racing a lot more tractable - he's more like a racehorse now. He's really a nice kind ride now for the jockeys.''
Lawrence has had success with the mare, Norah, recently, but Gallant Defender is the first winner for Duff-Staniland.
''Fingers crossed there might be one or two more,'' Lawrence added.
Lawrence had not won a race on Melbourne Cup day before, and neither had Sally Stewart, who races Go Solo, the winner of race 2.
Stewart, of Dunedin, races the mare out of the Wingatui stable of Terry Kennedy, who had five runners in the race.
While Melbourne Cup day success had eluded Stewart in the past, she did point out Go Solo's grand dam, Solo Star, bred by her mother Margaret Collie, won at Wingatui in February 1997.
That meeting was notable for the visit by singer Rod Stewart and model Rachel Hunter.
Kennedy rounded out the day when Dalwhinnie won race 9, the rating 75 1600m, in style. She will head to a rating 85 1800m on the last day of the New Zealand Cup carnival.
Stablemate Princess Brook will be entered in a rating 75 1600m on the same day, Kennedy said.
