But he realises no matter how hard he looks, it will be a very difficult task to replace Smoken Up.
Justice joined a prestigious group of 12 drivers at Waikouaiti last week for a youth versus experience drivers challenge, but he was also hunting down a horse to take over the role of stable star from the son of Tinted Cloud, who is Australasia's fastest pacer over a mile.
The 11yr-old pacer was again in winning form shortly before Justice's visit to Otago, winning the Westburn Grant free-for-all at Melton, near Justice's stables, on the previous Saturday.
''That was probably his softest win in his last 20 wins the other night,'' Justice said.
Smoken Up's form makes it easier to push on with him - a far cry from when it was time to end the career of dual Miracle Mile winner Sokyola.
The son of Soky's Atom won 78 of his 161 starts, and went out a winner at Moonee Valley in June 2007 after a decorated career which netted almost A$1.9 million ($NZ2.03 million) in stakes.
But Smoken Up, bought out of John and David Butcher's Cambridge stables, had already won eight straight races from Justice's stables by the time Sokyola's hopples were hung up. ''Sokyola got retired because Smoken Up was there,'' Justice said.
''I haven't got another Smoken Up in the stable right now, and that's why I'm happy for him to keep going on a bit longer.
''If something jumped out of the ground that I thought could be the next Smoken Up, I'd call his retirement, but it's hard to retire him when he's going so good. When he's winning every week, how do you retire him?''
So the search continues for Justice as he seeks out a successor to a horse which - to date - has won 72 from 143 starts and has ticked over the A$3.5 million mark in prize money.
''Tomorrow, I'll look at a couple on the way out and yesterday, I looked at a couple coming down here.
''I love the Kiwi horses. They fit in with the way I train them. A lot of guys get them and destroy them, but half the time they don't give them a chance to settle in.
''You can't do that with them. You've got to really look after them for their first preparation and their first summer because it's so hot over there. Once they're seasoned with the weather, you can do what you want with them - they're a tough, hardy breed.''
Both Smoken Up and Sokyola hold special places in Justice's heart, but once he sat behind Smoken Up when the long-striding gelding set an Australasian mile record of 1.48.5 in the 2011 Len Smith Mile, he knew which one was better.
''When Smoken Up went 1.48, I realised then that Sokyola wasn't quite as good as Smoken Up,'' Justice said.
That said, the Southland-bred Sokyola finished his career before the opening of the 1400m track at Menangle.
''I do wonder, because [Sokyola] went the second-fastest Miracle Mile around Harold Park. He may have gone 1.48 [at Menangle]. It's just really hard to line them up.
''We had them track-working together when I first got Smoken Up, but Sokyola was 10 and Smoken Up was 4. It wasn't really a fair contest.
''Smoken Up's 11 now and he's still beating 4yr-olds.''
Justice jumped at the chance to take part in last week's drivers series, particularly given the number of times he has gone in to battle with New Zealand's best drivers.
''I've been driving with these guys like Tony [Herlihy] and Ricky [May] for so many years. And I've known Dexter [Dunn] from when he's come around all the group races. You just get an affinity with these fellas.
''When you go to drive with them, you know they're going to be good races, and even if you're driving poor-quality horses, you know you're going to get around safely.''
He may not have had much luck with his drives last week, but the one thing Justice took away from Waikouaiti was pain in the legs - although he was expecting that after breaking them in a horror race smash at Melton just before Christmas 2011.
''The worst thing about today is that since I broke my legs, I haven't been driving more than four horses in a meeting and today I had eight drives.
''I thought this is going to test me but I got through it really good.''
