Leather strap care

[Otto]

It had to happen, I suppose. After many years of wearing crocodile and alligator straps on my 116518 Daytona without any damage to the straps, I finally got a small stain from probably food on one end of a strap. At first I thought it was just a drop of water, so I used a paper towel to soak the excess, but it has not dried as usual; i.e., it left a darker area in the light tan alligator strap. This Rolex strap is a flat, matte finish. Any ideas on the best way to clean this, or attempt to clean it? Would saddle soap be OK? I've read conflicting reports on whether that is OK for alligator straps; but this is a matte finish and it seems that might make saddle soap OK for use.

It's not a big deal, but this is a very light, "tobacco" color and I would either like to get this spot back to a lighter color, or darken the entire strap to even out the color. Luckily, I have another light colored strap, but these things aren't cheap, so I'd like to rehabilitate this one.

Any advice would be appreciated.