Enterprising Finishes Fast in La Jolla

Unleashing an electric burst of speed,  Glen Hill Farm’s classy Enterprising, the 3-2 favorite under Hall of Famer Mike Smith, blew away his opposition in the stretch to win Saturday’s featured 74th running of the Grade II $150,000 La Jolla Handicap.

According to calculations after the race, Enterprising ran his final five-sixteenths amazingly fast, in approximately 28 seconds, while rallying from far back to win by 1 ¼ lengths in 1:41.31 for the mile and one-sixteenth over the infield Jimmy Durante Turf Course.

I’ll Wrap It Up, the longest shot in the field of six three-year-olds at 15-1, was runner-up, a half-length in front of Sammy Mandeville, with early pacemaker Schoolofhardrocks fading to fourth. Tonito M. and Argyle Cut completed the line-up in the final steppingstone to the Grade II $300,000 Del Mar Derby on Sunday, August 31.

Enterprising, a Florida-bred son of Elusive Quality trained by Tom Proctor, won the opening-day $100,000 Oceanside Stakes and looms a solid favorite to sweep Del Mar’s series for three-year-olds in the Del Mar Derby.

Aside from a seventh-place finish in his career debut last October, Enterprising has never been worse than third in eight subsequent races while winning five times.

First money of $90,000 increased the bay colt’s earnings to $234,650.

The winner returned $5, $3.80 and $2.80, while I’ll Wrap It Up paid $10.00 and $4 and third-place Sammy Mandeville returned $4.20 to show.