This Week in Racing: On the road to Kentucky Derby 2018

Tapit, Tapit, Tapit. What would the Kentucky Derby trail be these days without some sons of America's top sire to spice things up? So it was this week in racing as two offspring of Tapit announced themselves as horses to watch in the lead-up to the first Saturday in May.

First on Friday, the $2 million colt, Marconi overcame a slow start and some mid-race traffic to roll to victory in the third race at Aqueduct. Trained by Todd Pletcher, the big, grey colt has plenty of buzz in large part thanks to his pedigree. The son of Tapit was produced by Ponche de Leona, making him a half-brother to the Breeders' Cup Classic winner, Mucho Macho Man. After a promising second-place finish in his career debut, Marconi continue to flash his potential with the easy victory on Friday. He still needs to learn many more racing lessons, and the final time in the maiden race was rather pedestrian, but there certainly looks to be plenty of room for improvement.

While Marconi is still very much a work in progress, Principe Guilherme looks to be a more polished product for trainer Steve Asmussen. First, the $600,000 yearling purchase, by Tapit, won his maiden in sharp fashion at Churchill Downs in November. On Saturday, he improved upon that win while outclassing his competition in a 1 mile and 70 yards allowance event at Fair Grounds. The 11 3/4-length demolition earned the talented youngster a solid Beyer of 92, and will also allow him graduation to stakes racing in his third start. Already looking like a horse who can run with the big names in his division, it is interesting to note that while he does have good stamina influences in his breeding, both his dam, Aubby K, and his second dam, Lily Capote, were top-notch sprinters.

Meanwhile, the only Derby trail points race of the week came Sunday night deep in the heart of Oklahoma, where Greyvitos skipped to victory in the $400,000 Springboard Mile Stakes at Remington Park. One of the first horses to escape the tragic fire that ravaged San Luis Rey Downs, the Adam Kitchingman-trained grey added 10 points toward qualification into next spring's Kentucky Derby for the effort. A son of Malibu Moon, Greyvitos has now strung together consecutive stakes wins after losing his first two career starts against maiden company. The upset winner of Del Mar’s Grade 3 Bob Hope Stakes in his previous start, the Triple B Farms runner set a stakes-record time of 1:37.14 for the mile, while hitting the wire 2 1/4-lengths clear of his closest competition on Sunday. Ridden by Victor Espinoza, Greyvitos is clearly an improving colt who will need to continue to do so to handle the leaders of the division.

One more note on the road to Louisville: He's only sprinted to date, but Tricks to Doo, a $600,000 two-year-old in training purchase of Lael Stable, looks to be improving with each and every start. Already having started at Keeneland, Laurel and now Tampa Bay Downs in his three-race career for trainer Arnauld Delacour, the son of Into Mischief absolutely dominated his competition in the Inaugural Stakes on Saturday. He also did so in racehorse time of 1:09.58 for the six furlongs,  albeit over a track playing fast Saturday at Tampa Bay Downs. It will be interesting to see what he can do as the distances increase, because he clearly is a colt of some quality.

Last week I wrote about the remarkable return of Toast of New York, who made it to the winner's circle at Lingfield after a layoff of more than three years. This week's top revival goes to Lewis Bay. The 4-year-old daughter of Bernardini was among the best juvenile fillies in 2015 and sophomore fillies in 2016, but had been away from the races for 13 months after nagging injuries. Brought back carefully by trainer Chad Brown, she entered Saturday's Grade 3 Rampart Stakes, and the result was worth the wait. Curlin's Approval is a classy mare who is absolutely tough as nails to beat at Gulfstream Park, so for Lewis Bay to turn her away like this was a huge performance. Lewis Bay is now a four-time graded stakes winner in only 11 career starts, and she heads into 2018 as one of the big girls among older dirt females. She also edges out a strong stakes winning performance by Fear the Cowboy on the same card for the week's top honor. Lewis Bay, is ... ZATT's Star of the Week!

Finally, I want to say what an honor it is to serve on the committee for Secretariat.com's Vox Populi award. What a wonderful way to carry on the legacy of Penny Chenery and everything she stood for. I was also thrilled to see that Ben's Cat chosen by the fans as this year's winner. In my mind, this is what the award is all about. While several other very popular horses will have Eclipse Awards to their respective names, this wonderful racing warrior never had a chance for such an honor. We tragically lost Ben's Cat not that long ago, but now his name will stand the test of time as a Vox Populi winner.