Lush Lips gets soft comeback spot in Ellis Park Turf
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Through the course of her 3-year-old season, Lush Lips turned into a tigress, with seven starts yielding four victories.
She captured the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup, probably North America’s most important turf route for sophomore fillies, and even her trio of second-place finishes were strong – two to champion Nitrogen, another an unlucky loss in the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks. And when Lush Lips launched her 4-year-old year Feb. 28 by unleashing a mighty late burst in the Honey Fox Stakes to run down Classic Q, who went on to win the Grade 2 Distaff Turf Mile and Grade 1 Just a Game, it seemed like the start of a campaign that could realistically focus on winning an Eclipse Award.
The second start of that campaign was supposed to come April 11 in the Jenny Wiley Stakes. Instead, it comes Sunday in the $175,000 Ellis Park Turf.
After being entered in the Jenny Wiley, Lush Lips came up with what her trainer, Brendan Walsh, hoped would prove a relatively minor injury. Instead, it cost her the spring and most of the summer.
“You miss two months, and then it takes two months to come back,” said Walsh, who trains Lush Lips for Dixiana Farms, which bought the filly at auction in November for $3.7 million. “It was a slow process, never really a bad injury, but it took its time to heal. We expected to have a big year with her.”
Lush Lips has not scared anyone off, though her morning-line price, a realistic 2-5, suggests maybe she should have. Ten others are entered in the Ellis Park Turf, which is for fillies and mares and carded at 1 1/16 miles. Tyler Gaffalione, who has ridden one card this Ellis meet, comes from New York to retain the mount on Lush Lips.
Lush Lips made her first two starts in Ireland, neither noteworthy, and in her American debut in September 2024, she lost by nearly 19 lengths at Kentucky Downs. She won her first two starts for Walsh two winters ago in Florida, then was a good second behind Nitrogen in the Florida Oaks, employing front-running tactics in all three outings.
But Walsh and his team focused on teaching Lush Lips to settle off the pace and found a willing student. By the end of last year, Lush Lips could be placed pretty much anywhere her rider wanted, a lethal quality in a high-class turf horse.
Is this the same horse as in March? Walsh thinks so. Lush Lips, in fact, never left the racetrack while she healed and has breezed steadily at Turfway Park.
“I can’t fault her,” Walsh said.
Ideally, Lush Lips makes short work of overmatched foes Sunday, goes on to the First Lady at Keeneland, and then stretches out to 1 3/16 miles in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf.
Who could pull a Sunday upset? Who knows? Sans Lush Lips, the Ellis Park Turf would have a favorite in the 4-1 range – perhaps Daisy Flyer, who hasn’t won in 13 months. Walsh wanted Lush Lips to have a relatively stress-free comeback race, and he has found the spot for it.
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