Jay Robbins was ready to hit the vodka, not for him but for his horse. Then again, he probably could have used a stiff drink himself. The vodka was supposed to calm down the quirky Tiznow, who was acting stupid in the morning and cranky in the afternoon. In two straight lackluster efforts, Chris McCarron would ask him to run, and he would, but on his own terms. He wasn't going to try any harder than he wanted to.

	Jockey Chris McCarron, right, reacts in the winner's circle with Tiznow's owner Michael Cooper, second from left, after their Classic victory.

"I considered giving him some vodka on Monday," Robbins said. "It's an old racetrack trick to relax a horse. He was pretty fractious, but he made a lot of progress, so I didn't do it."

So Tiznow was sober before yesterday's $4 million Classic on a chilly fall afternoon at Belmont Park. That meant he wouldn't be wobbling in a drunken stupor down the track, but would he finally put forth the kind of focused, full-fledged effort it would take to win?

"I was just wishing that Tiznow would go out there and run like he did in the Santa Anita Handicap and just get down and run as fast as he possibly can from the head of the lane to the wire and show the world what he is capable of doing," jockey Chris McCarron said. "He wins photos, but he gives us heart failure. He's not quite putting out 100 percent. I don't know if he's giving me 95 percent, 98 percent or 80 percent. But I know it's not 100."

That was evident in the two races he competed in after lodging his comeback from a back problem in the Woodward and then the Goodwood. He ran ... sort of. He was third in both races, running as if he were bored to tears.

That act wasn't going to get it done in the Classic, not against some of the best horses in the world. This headcase, who had become so stubborn that sometimes it would take him a half an hour in the mornings before he decided to gallop, figured to get his clock cleaned in his attempt to win back to back Classics.

"The Goodwood concerns me because he ran spottily," Robbins said earlier in the week. "It didn't look like he was going to run well and then he accelerated the last 50 yards and kept going after the wire. Maybe he's taking advantage of us and pushing our buttons. He knows what he wants to do and when he wants to do it?"

Something was different yesterday. It was if Tiznow knew that it was time to stop fooling around, that his act was getting old and that a $4 million race was no time to go through the motions. But of course that's not true. He's a horse and his brain is slightly larger than a pea. Nonetheless, he was a gritty and as determined as a horse can be.

Racing in close contention to the leaders down the backstretch, he loomed dangerously at the top of the stretch. The problem was Sakhee, the classy Arc de Triomphe winner from the Godolphin Stable. Sakhee joined him and the passed him. Surely, Tiznow was done.

"To be perfectly frank, I thought I was riding for second money when we approached the eighth pole," McCarron said. "There was a pretty good battle going between the three of us (Albert the Great was also in the fray) as we straightened out. When Sakhee went by me so readily and with so much momentum I thought I was going to second." So did everyone else. But Tiznow but his head down, bulled his way back and battled with the sort of fierce determination that had been missing from his repertoire.

"I don't have a good enough vocabulary to describe his resolve," McCarron said. "He is absolutely awesome."

At the wire, he had stuck his neck back in front of Sakhee, recording one of the gamest wins ever in a major race. That prompted McCarron, Robbins and owner Michael Cooper to begin their campaign for Horse of the Year honors. No way. Tiznow won just three races this year in a campaign that pales to the one pieced together by Santa Anita Derby, Preakness, Belmont, Haskell and Travers winner Point Given. But take nothing away from Tiznow. Just when it was time to stick the proverbial fork in him, he turned in the type of effort that only a champion is capable of producing.

And the good news didn't end when he crossed the wire in the Classic. Cooper announced afterward that Tiznow would race next year.

They passed on the vodka, but it's never too late for a couple of adult beverages. Let him drink some champagne in celebration. He deserves it.