Cheekaboo wins Honeymoon Stakes by a head at Santa Anita

ARCADIA, Calif. (AP) — Cheekaboo won the $200,000 Honeymoon Stakes for 3-year-old fillies by a head in a three-way blanket finish Sunday at Santa Anita, where the temperature reached 103 degrees.

Ridden by Hall of Famer Mike Smith, Cheekaboo ran 1 1/8 miles on turf in 1:46.86 and paid $49.60, $16.60 and $8.80 at 23-1 odds.

Be Mine returned $4.80 and $3.40, while Stays in Vegas was another nose back in third and paid $3.60 to show as the 3-1 favorite.

Cheekaboo won the Grade 2 race that was the last of the spring meet before construction on a new turf course starts Monday.

“I don’t know what it looked like, but it was fun as hell to ride,” Smith said. “I kind of feel like, ‘OK, now people can see I can ride a little bit.’ I can do more than just hang on to Songbird (with whom he won Saturday’s Grade 2 Summertime Oaks by 6 1/2 lengths).”

The victory, worth $120,000, increased Cheekaboo’s career earnings to $279,680. It was her first stakes victory and third win in eight starts.

Cheekaboo’s sire is the aptly named Unusual Heat.