Totally Justified finds winning form in Ellis Park Turf
Totally Justified won just the third race of her career by running down 1-2 favorite Lush Lips, who was making her first start since February, in the $175,000 Ellis Park Turf on Sunday.
Totally Justified skimmed the rail throughout the Ellis Park Turf, restricted to older fillies and mares and carded for 1 1/16 miles, racing from mid-pack as heavily favored Lush Lips set an easy pace. Lush Lips opened up turning for home, but Totally Justified and jockey Joseph Bealmear were moving too, coming off the fence past the eighth pole, taking aim on Lush Lips, and then taking her measure in the final half-furlong.
The win margin was one length with Lush Lips 2 1/4 lengths clear of third-place Just Ruthless. Totally Justified, a 4-year-old daughter of Justify and the Galileo mare Outstanding, paid $15.24 and was timed in 1:40.60 on closing day of Ellis’ 2026 race meeting.
Lush Lips, a Grade 1 winner racing for the first time since defeating subsequent Grade 1 winner Classic Q in the Honey Fox on Feb. 28 at Gulfstream Park, ran like a horse who probably needed a race, failing to sustain her run while unable to finish with a horse that she should have handled with a baseline performance.
Credit, though to Anna Meah, who trains Totally Justified for Payson Stud. Racing for trainer Rusty Arnold, Totally Justified won the P G Johnson at Saratoga while still a maiden 2-year-old during summer 2024, then nearly won the Jessamine Stakes at Keeneland in her next out. While running to form during much of the streak, Totally Justified went on a 13-race losing skid after the Johnson, during which she was sold at auction for $775,000 last November. Meah finally got a win out of the filly last month in a first-level Ellis allowance, and on Sunday she got Totally Justified back to her best, which was good enough to take down Lush Lips.
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