HORSE RACING / BILL CHRISTINE : 1992 Had Its Ups and Downs

It will be 2002 before the Chinese calendar gives us the next “Year of the Horse.” Maybe the sport has time to wait, maybe not.

The year that just ended was an unhappy mixture of industry jitters, owner and trainer frustration, jockey peril and attendance erosion. With all due respect to A.P. Indy, the horse of the year in waiting, the most talked-about horse in 1992 was Arazi, hailed in France but best remembered here for the big races he bungled.

Quickly, here’s a run-through of ‘92:

JANUARY: Angel Cordero went down in a four-horse spill at Aqueduct, suffering a broken elbow, broken ribs and undergoing surgery to have his spleen removed. Cordero, 49, said that he hoped to ride again, but not many believed him. Still sidelined four months later, Cordero announced his retirement to begin a training career.

FEBRUARY: Racing went to Las Vegas, to join a community long visualized as the competition, for the Eclipse Awards dinner. Black Tie Affair, with six victories at six tracks, was named horse of the year for 1991. . . . After the mysterious death at sea of publisher Robert Maxwell, the Racing Times folded after 10 months of competing with the Daily Racing Form. . . . Earl Scheib, who painted cars and raced top horses, died at 85.

MARCH: Best Pal won the Santa Anita Handicap, becoming an early candidate for horse of the year. But he ran only twice more, suffering a leg injury in June. . . . Henryk de Kwiatkowski bought bankrupt Calumet Farm for $17 million.

APRIL: Bob Wheeler, the trainer of Silver Spoon, the filly who won the Santa Anita Derby in 1959, died at 72. Silver Spoon’s owner, Cornelius Vanderbilt (Sonny) Whitney, 93, died eight months later. . . . Nijinsky II, England’s horse of the year in 1970 and a leading American stallion, died at 25. Three weeks later, another outstanding sire, Blushing Groom, died at 18.

MAY: A.P. Indy, expected to be favored in the Kentucky Derby, was scratched the morning of the race because of a hoof injury. Lil E. Tee, at 16-1, won the Derby, giving jockey Pat Day his first victory in the race after nine tries. Arazi, the 9-10 favorite, finished eighth. . . . With A.P. Indy still on the sidelines, Arazi back in France and Lil E. Tee running fifth while bleeding from the lungs, Pine Bluff won the Preakness, giving jockey Chris McCarron one of his 12 major victories for the year. . . . Strike The Gold, winless in 12 starts since winning the 1991 Derby, won the Pimlico Special.

JUNE: A.P. Indy, under Eddie Delahoussaye, won the Belmont Stakes. Pine Bluff, who ran third, won the $1-million bonus for best finishes in the Triple Crown races. . . . Dr Devious, owned by Californians Sid and Jenny Craig, won England’s Epsom Derby. . . . Two big splashes in small ponds--Carl Gambardella at Rockingham Park and David Gall at Fairmount Park--rode their 6,000th winners. . . . Financially strapped, Rockingham Park dropped out of the American Championship Racing Series, one of the sport’s better promotions. By the end of the year, Oaklawn Park and Santa Anita also abandoned the series. . . . Harry Henson, who called races at Hollywood Park for 24 years, died at 78. . . . Sultry Song won the Hollywood Gold Cup. JULY: Pine Bluff was retired to stud, one of numerous top horses that were unable to finish the season. Among the others were Lil E. Tee, Best Pal, Bertrando, Fly Till Dawn, Cudas, Classic Fame and Dance Smartly. . . . Kent Desormeaux became the first jockey since Bill Shoemaker in 1970 to win six races on a card at Hollywood Park. . . . Jose Santos broke an arm, a collarbone and his hip in a spill at Belmont Park, an accident that kept him out of action until December. . . . Owner Allen Paulson fired his trainer, Dick Lundy, and sued him for alleged irregularities in the buying and selling of horses. It was not a good year for the unrelated Lundys. J.T. Lundy, the president of Calumet Farm, resigned before the place was sold and later was reported to be having personal financial trouble.

AUGUST: Slew O’ Gold, Lady’s Secret and Johnstown, along with jockey Sandy Hawley and trainer Scotty Schulhofer, were inducted into racing’s Hall of Fame at Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Later in the year, Hawley rode his 6,000th winner. . . . Desormeaux rode Missionary Ridge, a 24-1 shot, to victory in the Pacific Classic at Del Mar. . . . Pleasant Stage, the champion 2-year-old filly in 1991, collapsed and died after an allergic reaction to a vitamin injection. . . . Dale Baird, a claiming trainer from West Virginia, saddled his 6,000th winner.

SEPTEMBER: The California Horse Racing Board, examining its own actions in a horse-drugging scandal, announced on Sept. 15 that the California Department of Justice would take over the investigation. Estimated time of investigation: 30 days. By the end of the year, the report had not yet reached the board. . . . In one of the best races of the year, the European invader, Dear Doctor, outran Sky Classic and Golden Pheasant in the Arlington Million, with less than a length separating them. . . . Longacres, the suburban Seattle track that opened in 1933, closed on Sept. 21. The property will be developed by its new owner, an aircraft company.

OCTOBER: A.P. Indy won the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Gulfstream Park, on a day marred by the death of an English horse, Mr Brooks, and serious injuries to his jockey, the legendary Lester Piggott. California jockeys Delahoussaye, McCarron and Pat Valenzuela rode the winners in six of the seven races. Arazi, favored at 3-2, ran 11th in the Sprint and was later retired.

NOVEMBER: Released from a Florida hospital, Piggott, 57, said that he would resume riding in 1993. . . . In a referendum in Inglewood, 52% of the voters approved the building of a card club at Hollywood Park, further straining relations between track management and horsemen. . . . Dying were Hal Roach, the 100-year-old movie producer and first president of Santa Anita; Gwynn Wilson, 95, who picked the architect and oversaw the construction of the track in 1934; and Frances Genter, 94, owner of 1990 Kentucky Derby winner Unbridled. . . . A.P. Indy was retired to stud.

DECEMBER: Desormeaux, the nation’s leading jockey with more than $14 million in purses, was kicked in the head by a horse in a race at Hollywood Park and suffered multiple skull fractures that were expected to sideline him until late January. . . . Opening day at Santa Anita was marred by tote failures, resulting in the loss of an estimated $3 million in betting. . . . Dancer’s Image, first-place finisher in the most controversial Kentucky Derby, died at 27 in Japan, where he was standing at stud. Dancer’s Image won the 1968 Derby, but was disqualified in favor of Forward Pass after testing positive for an illegal painkiller. . . . . Lukas finished the year with more than $9 million in purses, giving him his 10th consecutive national training title even though his barn failed to win a major race in ’92.