It’s January, even if it feels like April, and with a new year comes a new array of Triple Crown hopefuls.

While many of the top-ranked 3-year-olds -- horses like Union Rags, Hansen and even Remsen winner O’Prado Again - are working on their suntans in Florida while they prep for their 3-year-old debut, here in New York the road to Louisville officially opened Saturday with the latest renewal of the Count Fleet.

Not one to be confused with the Wood Memorial, the $150,000 Count Fleet can be a stepping stone to bigger and better things, a scenario that may come to fruition through Saturday’s talented winner, Alpha.

At two, Alpha won at first asking at Saratoga and seemed one of the division’s better runners when he finished second to Union Rags in the Champagne. A nearly invisible 11th place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile relegated the Godolphin runner to the B List, but his 2 1/2-length score in the mile and 70-yard Count Fleet put him back on the fast track to Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in May.

“Alpha was just a great win. We’ll probably leave him there [in New York],” said trainer Kiaran McLauglin, who also won Saturday’s co-featured Busanda for 3-year-old fillies with Captivating Lass. Despite having two stakes winners on the card, McLaughlin spoke by phone from, where else, Florida. “We’ll probably go to the Withers [Feb. 4] and on to the Wood [April 7]. For sure we’ll have to talk to the Godolphin people, but that’s what we’ll look at for right now.”

Stephanoatsee looked to be a fast-closing second, but that was more reflective of the way the pacesetting Il Villano, who was exposed as a sprinter, tired in the final yards and was passed by the Graham Motion-trained Stephanoatsee. No one was beating Alpha, a 4-5 favorite, on this spring-like day in New York.

“Turning for home, he responded every time I asked him,” jockey Ramon Dominguez said. “He galloped out so strong that I had to get an outrider to pull him up. You always have to go just by what you have seen, but judging by today he should be able to handle more distance.”

And so, the Big Apple’s chase for the Kentucky Derby began rather fittingly with a horse named Alpha. Whether it will end with him is a question that most likely will not be answered until spring truly arrives.