Hawthorne: Where's Taylor on class

STICKNEY, Ill. - Assistant trainer Hilary Pridham fretted that Where's Taylor wasn't 100 percent fit for his start Saturday in the Sun Beau Stakes at Hawthorne. He probably wasn't, but it didn't matter, as Where's Taylor's class and natural ability got him home first by three-quarters of a length in the $59,850 Sun Beau, a 1 1/16-mile turf race.

Where's Taylor, owned by Golden Racing Stable and trained by Mike Stidham, led from gate to wire under apprentice rider Zoe Cadman.

Cadman had won one stakes race before last weekend, but now has won the last two stakes run at Hawthorne.

A sharp break and the absence of other speed horses benefitted Where's Taylor, a front-runner who won the Grade 3 Carey Memorial over this course last fall. Where's Taylor hadn't raced since early January and had worked only four times. But he spurted clear on the far turn and had enough left at the finish to hold off a game Treat Me Doc, who beat Galic Boy for second by a length.

Where's Taylor was timed in 1:44.74 over a course rated yielding. He paid $4 as the heavy favorite in a field reduced to seven by the scratches of An Oscar for Bert, Intern, and Rhythmean.

Pridham, who saddled the horse because Stidham is in California this weekend, said Where's Taylor would be pointed for the Grade 2 Firecracker Handicap at Churchill Downs.