SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The headliner, and rightfully so, from trainer Cherie DeVaux is Golden Tempo (Curlin). Winning the GI Kentucky Derby and GI Belmont Stakes will give you top billing on the marquee.He'll come into Saturday as the 5-2 morning-line favorite in the 157th running of the $1.25-million GI Travers Stakes, the centerpiece of the 46-day summer meet at Saratoga.As good as Golden Tempo, a 'TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard', has been, don't sleep on the other megastar taking up residence in DeVaux's barn. That would be fellow 'TDN Rising Star' Englishman (Maxfield) and he looks to be a handful in the $500,000 GI H. Allen Jerkens Memorial.The super-fast colt, owned by C R K Stable, Inc., is the 3-5 morning-line favorite, the shortest-priced horse in any of the 14 races on the Saturday card.For good reason, too. Englishman has steamrolled his competition in three of his four career starts, winning by a combined 20 1/2 lengths. The lone loss came in the GII Pat Day Mile at Churchill Downs on Kentucky Derby Day when he was defeated by Crude Velocity (Beau Liam), another 'TDN Rising Star', by 3 3/4 lengths.Englishman avenged that defeat in a big way when he squashed Crude Velocity in the GI Woody Stephens Stakes a month later at Saratoga. He won by 5 3/4 lengths and equaled the seven-furlong record at the Spa–1:20.40–which was set in 1978 by Darby Creek Road.In that race, Englishman was awarded a 115 Beyer Speed figure, the highest of any 3-year-old this year.Yes. Englishman is fast. Very fast.“He's so fast and I don't know if I've ever been around a horse that fast,” DeVaux said at her barn at the Oklahoma Training Track.Only four other 3-year-olds will attempt to run with Englishman in the Jerkens. Solitude Dude (Yaupon), who was second in the GII Amsterdam here last month and beaten 20 1/2 lengths by Englishman in the Woody Stephens, was entered in the Jerkens but will instead head to Charles Town for the Robert Hilton Memorial Stakes on Friday night.DeVaux understands why Golden Tempo gets most of the flowers but certainly believes Englishman deserves some of the bouquet, too.“I think he deserves to be in the same conversation,” she said. “It's natural when you have a horse than runs the Classic distance that they are going to be the one that's always talked about. But Englishman, he's right up there with the top 3-year-olds and maybe the top horse in the country.”Moquett Looking for a Sweet Hymn in ForegoThe horse to beat in Saturday's $500,000 GI Forego Stakes at Saratoga? That's easy.Book'em Danno (Bucchero), winner of five of his last six–the one loss came by a neck–is the even-money morning-line favorite and no one is arguing that. Want more?He has raced six times at Saratoga and the 5-year-old has won five of them, including his last four. The reigning Eclipse Award winner for champion male sprinter will be tough to beat in the Forego.There are those that will try. One of the six (the seventh horse entered in the Forego–Banishing {Ghostzapper}–will run in the GII Charles Town Classic Stakes Friday night)–is the sweet-sounding Hymn (McKinzie), who carries 12-1 morning-line odds into the Forego.Hymn enjoys a treat from his stall | Sarah Andrew“This place has beaten favorites before,” Hymn's trainer Ron Moquett said outside the gelding's stall at the Stakes Barn Wednesday morning. “Until you beat the champ [Book'em Danno], he is the champ. He is very much deserving of the favoritism.”Hymn has been at Saratoga for a while. He finished second, beaten by 2 1/2 lengths to Built (Hard Spun) in the GII Alfred G. Vanderbilt Stakes on July 25. But he fought for that place spot as he caught Damon's Mound (Girvin) and took that spot by a neck.Hymn has raced 14 times in his career and has four wins and three seconds. The best part of his resume has been since April, after he became a gelding. Since then, he has three wins and the Vanderbilt second. That was his first graded stakes race.Before he became a gelding, Hymn had a reputation as a bully. That came to a head when he finished fourth in an allowance at Oaklawn Park on April 10. Hall of Fame jockey Johnny Velazquez, who was on board that day, suggested that gelding Hymn might prove advantageous.“Johnny said the horse did not put out any effort,” Moquett said. “He said he was too busy worried about all the other horses, wanting to beat them up and run them over. When Johnny V tells my owners it's time to geld him, it's time to geld him.”The results don't lie. After the procedure, Hymn, owned and bred by Fleur de Lis Stables and co-owned by William S. Sparks and Bret Jones, became a more focused, determined horse. Oh, he still has his toughness–you don't want to get too close to him in his stall–but he concentrates more in his races.He'll have to in the Forego.Ricardo Santana, Jr., who rode him in the Vanderbilt, will ride again on Saturday.“Now that he has been gelded, he is starting to be a little more, I guess, ridable,” Moquett said. “He is now channeling his energy towards beating them to the finish line instead of fighting the rider and fighting the other horses and trying to bite them and run into them. He needs to keep stepping forward and he will have to run the race of his life to be competitive in this race.”Ocelli Giving it Another ShotThe law of averages suggest that this can't go on forever.Ocelli (Connect) has an impressive bankroll as he has earned $842,300 in his 10-race career. He has more money in the bank than five of the horses he will face in the 10-horse field in Saturday's $1.25-million GI Travers Stakes.But all the horses in the Travers have one thing, or more, than Ocelli has. They have all visited the winner's circle at least once in their careers.Ocelli works last week at the Spa | Sarah AndrewOcelli, though, he has battled the best of the division all year long and he'll do it again when he runs in the Midsummer Derby and attempts to become the first maiden since 1875 to win the biggest race of the summer.Ocelli has two seconds and four thirds in his 10 starts. But no wins.In his last five starts–all graded stakes–he has shown up. Third in the GII Wood Memorial (at 28-1 odds), third in the GI Kentucky Derby (at 70-1!) and he was only beaten a length. Throw in a fourth in the GI Preakness Stakes and a second in the GIII Ohio Derby and you have the makings of a real hard-luck loser.In his last start, the GI Haskell Stakes, he finished last, but trainer Whit Beckman is going to excuse him for that as the sloppy track was his likely undoing.Ocelli will wear the longshot hood on Saturday as he is 20-1 on the Travers morning line, the longest price in the race.“I have been trying to win with this horse since day one, believe it or not,” Beckman said, sitting in his office at his barn at the Oklahoma Training Track Wednesday morning. “I have not designed this program to keep him a non-winner with a lot of money.”Beckman could have sent Ocelli to the $1-million GI Pennsylvania Derby next month but decided to stay here. No ship, walk out of his stall, run his race.He has optimism because Ocelli has flourished, Beckman said, since he came to Saratoga after the July 18 Haskell.“He has had a good month, a real good month,” Beckman said. “His coat, his appetite; everything we look at on the surface level is great. Could he be doing any better? Maybe, but he is doing as good as I could hope. If a horse doesn't thrive up here, something is not right. Saratoga is a wonderful place for a horse and for us as well.”Ocelli will have a new rider in the Travers in Edgard Zayas, who replaces Tyler Gaffalione. Gaffalione will ride Renegade (Into Mischief), the 3-1 morning-line second choice. He replaces Irad Ortiz, Jr., who is out for the rest of the meet with a foot injury.The post Saratoga Notebook, Presented by NYRA Bets: Englishman Doesn’t Have to Take Backseat to Anyone appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.