L'Oiseau d'Argent pursued front-runner Royal Regalia through soft early fractions of :23 3/5; :46 2/5 and 1:09 2/5 on the firm course. But as the leaders faded, Hall of Fame jockey Jerry Bailey - honored earlier in then day as Saratoga's all-time leading jockey -- rallied with Silver Tree on the outside. Down inside, however, a hole opened and Velazquez greedily accepted it.
"I thought I had a good trip," Velazquez said. "We got lucky. We could have got shut off and got beat. The horse ran really, really well. It was nice turning the tables on Silver Tree." Silver Tree had twice beaten Nothing to Lose, including a neck victory in the Grade 2 Bernard Baruch earlier this meet.
"If he don't try to get through, he probably doesn't win the race," said Hall of Fame trainer Bobby Frankel of Nothing to Lose, whose winning time of 1:39 2/5 was three-fifths off Fourstardave's course record of 1:38 4/5 set on July 29, 1991. "Silver Tree has beaten me twice; the last time we ran, I thought I had the best horse, but he got bumped pretty good. This time, he had the best trip and got through."
