Cake Pop seeks second straight stakes win in Honey Jay

Coming off an emphatic victory in the Daniel Stearns Cleveland Gold Cup, Cake Pop looks to keep rolling as he takes on older horses in the $75,000 Honey Jay Stakes for Ohio-bred sprinters Saturday at Thistledown.

Cake Pop, campaigned as a homebred by trainer Michael Lauer and his wife, Penny, rallied four wide with a rush in the final sixteenth to win the Cleveland Gold Cup by 2 1/4 lengths on July 1 at Thistledown. That nine-furlong race was his first victory around two turns. He also owns stakes wins in the Hoover Stakes at 5 1/2 furlongs and the Tall Stack Stakes in May going 6 1/2 furlongs, both at Belterra Park.

The colt cuts back to six furlongs for the Honey Jay and will start from the rail under Marcelino Pedroza. Although he closed in the Cleveland Gold Cup, Cake Pop has won from on or just off the lead before.

Drawn directly next to Cake Pop in the starting gate are Rivers Run Deep and jockey Eduardo E. Perez. The veteran gelding put together an outstanding campaign last year for trainer Chris Hartman, winning six of seven starts, including the Best of Ohio Sprint Stakes. His only loss in that span came when he was beaten a half-length against open-company stakes competition in the Mighty Beau Stakes on the Churchill Downs Turf.

Rivers Run Deep’s only victory this year is in the Edward Babst/Albert Palacios Memorial Handicap at Belterra. He has won five of six outings at Thistledown.

Stakes winner Alliseeisgold returned to racing in May after having been laid off since November 2015. He has come back with a vengeance to win two of three starts this season, all in allowance company at Thistledown.