SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — The fog lifted Saturday morning, and then the star came out.Golden Tempo (Curlin), the GI Kentucky Derby and GI Belmont Stakes winner, emerged on the main track at Saratoga just before 8:45 a.m. and dazzled in his second-to-last work before the Aug. 29 GI, $1.25 million Travers Stakes.With jockey Jose Ortiz in the saddle, Golden Tempo, working on the inside, glided over the Spa surface, breezing four furlongs in a bullet 47.46 (1/64). He worked with stablemate Paige Turner (Army Mule), a 3-year-old filly, and exercise rider Ameth Gonzalez.“I am really confident where he is right now,” trainer Cherie DeVaux said outside her barn at the Oklahoma Training Track after the work. “He seems fit, he is really happy. He has had a couple really nice works, solid, and he is not overly exerted. I think he is in a really good place.”Originally, the plan was to work Golden Tempo at 7 a.m., but a dense fog scrapped that idea and pushed it to 8:45 after the break.“We couldn't see anything,” DeVaux said of the early hour murkiness.After the conditions improved, Golden Tempo and Ortiz made the long walk from DeVaux's barn in the far corner of the Oklahoma to the main track. Once there, the Phipps Stable and St. Elias Stable homebred chewed up the ground, which still had some moisture in it after Friday's rains.“He handled it fine,” DeVaux said. “He probably would not have gone as fast to start out if it were dry, a normal track.”Ortiz, who has been Golden Tempo's constant partner–he has ridden him in all six of his starts –could find nothing wrong with the work.“I am sure Cherie is happy with him and so am I,” he said after hopping off Golden Tempo. “We wanted 48; he went a little bit more, 47, but he did it on his own. Just let him be happy and stretch his legs.”This was the fourth work for Golden Tempo at Saratoga since shipping up from Keeneland last month and Ortiz has been on him for all four. For this work, DeVaux did not want as robust of a gallop out, something that had been evident in his prior Spa works.“We didn't have him gallop out the way he has his last couple of works,” DeVaux said. “We just kind of eased him down because he has been doing a lot.”With two weeks to go to the Travers, DeVaux says she is not feeling any pressure. She still has a stable to run, other horses to prepare for other races.Golden Tempo has won three of five starts this year and has four wins in six starts for his career. His wins in the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes came at 1 1/4 miles, the same distance as the Travers.“I will be anxious the week of the race because I want to get to the race,” she said. “The pressure, I try hard not to feel that because then you don't get to enjoy any of this.”Jose Ortiz aboard Zeitlos in the Smart and Fancy | Sarah AndrewOrtiz Starting to Run Away With TitleWhen Week 7 of the marathon Saratoga summer started, the chase to be top jockey at Saratoga was still a race. After Sunday, there will be three weeks left and the race has turned into a runaway.Jose Ortiz saw to that. The 32-year-old jockey, a three-time winner of the Spa riding title, is well on his way to his fourth after his impressive week. When it started, Ortiz had 40 wins, two more than Flavien Prat and six more than Manny Franco.Ortiz had a power surge in the first three days this week, riding 11 winners to rocket to a 51-38 advantage over Prat. Prat, though, was inactive because he was serving a three-day suspension. He came off it Saturday.Irad Ortiz Jr., Jose's brother, had surged into contention after missing the first six days of the meet (suspension, riding out of town) but is now sidelined with a foot injury. He won't be back until next Saturday and is stuck on 30 winners.Naturally, Jose Ortiz likes the position he's in but will take nothing for granted.“It's going to be a great memory,” he said Saturday morning while making the rounds on the Oklahoma Training Track. “But I am focusing on what is in front of me. ”Steve Rushing, the agent for both Ortiz brothers, said that Jose will be leaving the Spa after Travers Day, Aug. 29, and will head for Kentucky Downs. He said there is a chance Jose Ortiz could come back to ride on Sept. 4, the final Friday of the Saratoga meet when Kentucky Downs is dark.Irad Ortiz and Prat are also expected to spend a lot of time at Kentucky Downs after the Travers. Opening day of the seven-day meet at Kentucky Downs is Travers Day. Total purse money at the all-grass track is $25.75 million across 20 stakes races.Besides Aug. 29, Kentucky Downs will race Aug. 30, Sept. 3 and Sept. 5-7 and Sept. 9.“We will see what happens in the next couple weeks,” Jose Ortiz said. “It would be great to win the title here and ride at Kentucky Downs as well.”Ortiz hopes he can put more daylight between himself and his competitors before heading to Kentucky. The main concern could be Franco, who is expected to stay the duration of the Saratoga meet. He went into Saturday with 37 wins.“It is very hard when you're not here and other guys are,” Jose Ortiz said. “The most important thing right now is winning as much as we can.”Kinnon LaRose | Sarah AndrewLaRose Aiming at Second Graded Stakes WinEarlier in the meet, trainer Kinnon LaRose, in his first Saratoga summer running a stable, got his first graded stakes win when Stress Relief (Not This Time) won the GIII Adirondack.The 29-year-old LaRose, who spent six years as an assistant to Tom Amoss, took over when Amoss retired in April. On Sunday, he'll be looking for stakes win No. 2 when he saddles Oscar's Hope (Twirling Candy) in the GIII Mahony, a 5 1/2-furlong sprint on the Mellon Turf Course for 3-year-olds.Owned by Michael McLoughlin, Oscar's Hope, will be making his first start on grass after 10 career starts (four wins, three seconds and a third) on dirt.“We're trying something different with him,” LaRose said at his barn on the Saratoga backstretch. “He has handled the grass well in the morning and we are willing to give him a shot.”Oscar's Hope is one of three horses in the seven-horse field with 8-1 morning-line odds. The heavy favorite is even-money morning line choice Outfielder (Speightstown), who was last seen finishing 10th in the GI Commonwealth Cup Stakes at Royal Ascot in June.LaRose, the former basketball player at Siena College (now University) and Sacred Heart University (he showed he could still shoot it when he nailed several 3-pointers in the annual jockey-trainer basketball game earlier this month”), enjoyed the taste of a Saratoga stake.Now, he wants another helping.“I was telling someone the other day, when you win a stake, you want to get back there right away,” he said. “This is the summer place to be. We are very grateful to be here and we are blessed to have some good horses and some good owners that are behind us. We are just going to take it day by day, keep it simple and keep on rolling.” The post Saratoga Notebook, presented by NYRA Bets – DeVaux: Golden Tempo is ‘in a Really Good Place’ appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.