Lavington right behind Media Award in Group One Australasian Oaks at Morphettville

Media Award is leased by a host of former Lavington committee members and players and snuck into the field of 16 with an impressive victory at Geelong two weeks ago.

Former Panthers president Peter Barwick is among the group who will fly to Adelaide on Saturday to cheer on the three-year-old, which was a $5000 yearling purchase for owner Mark Arrowsmith before he leased it to clients of Geelong-based trainer Chris Calthorpe.

"It's very exciting, we're hopeful she can run a good race," he said.

"Mark Arrowsmith owns the filly and he sent a message around to the footy clubs and we took it on.

"We started off with 100 per cent of a horse with him called Lavee Star and it had one run and broke down, so he swapped us into this filly.

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"It was a bit of a drawn-out process, but we lease the filly off him and he tips money back into the football club."

Damien Oliver guided Media Award to victory in its last start, but has committed to the class runner of the field, Personal, for the Australasian Oaks, with Luke Nolen booked for the ride.

"She's pretty lightly-framed, but whatever she does is going to be a bonus because she'll improve after she's had a bit of a spell and comes back in again," Barwick added.

"When Mark sent the email to us we tossed it around and thought if we can win a race or two somewhere it will be a bit of fun.

"We never expected to be having a runner in a Group One."

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