THOROUGHBRED RACING : Top Award, Bottom Celebration

The horse-of-the-year award for 1992 will be announced late tonight. But for most of the country, particularly those in the Eastern time zone, it will be about 2 in the morning Saturday. That’s too late for any newspaper in New York, too late for any television news wrapups in Kentucky, Florida and Maryland. And those are all states with races that help determine horse of the year.

This is yet another example of racing’s shortsightedness, saving the sport’s crowning moment so that perhaps 1,000 guests at the $250-a-plate Eclipse Awards dinner in Century City will get the thrill of seeing someone open an envelope, Oscar-style, on the stage.

Any chance of a climactic evening vanished last October, the day that A.P. Indy won convincingly in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Gulfstream Park.

These developments leave racing with the worst of both worlds: No suspense and little coverage. Only a sport that is losing tracks, horse owners and fans in droves could come up with an exacta like that.

Since the Eclipse Awards program began in 1971, the horse-of-the-year title has been announced by everything but carrier pigeon: Mail, press conference, satellite television, commercial television special and black-tie dinner, and now the award is returning to its worst of all worlds, late at night in the Pacific time zone.

The Eclipse Awards are sponsored by the National Turf Writers Assn., the Daily Racing Form and the Thoroughbred Racing Assns., a trade group made up of most of the major tracks in the United States and Canada. The turf writers and the Racing Form do little more than vote for the awards, leaving the Eclipse dinner particulars to the TRA.

“My main objective is just to keep the dinner going,” said Chris Scherf, executive vice president of the TRA. “The future of the dinner is at stake. When we planned the dinner, the horse of the year was still up for grabs. We may take a bath this time, and the question in my mind is just how big of a bath it will be. I’ve got to weigh the newspaper clippings with maybe a $100,000 loss.”

Scherf said that he inquired about a Century City theater, to announce the horse of the year at an earlier hour, but it wasn’t available. He said that the Eclipse Awards hotel’s banquet room is not available earlier in the day, because former President Jimmy Carter is making a speech there.

The sad part about the whole horse-of-the-year process is that it preempts the fan, the guy that racing is always saying it wants to do right by. The Eclipse dinner, the last event in the TRA’s week-long annual convention, is so pricey that a $2 bettor can’t afford the valet parking.

Racing needs to announce its horse of the year shortly after the Breeders’ Cup, the sport’s most definitive races. Make the announcement at a race track, let the fans in free for the day and parade the winner between races, before he’s sent off to stud. After all, A.P. Indy is the star of the show tonight. But he won’t be anywhere near the talking tuxedos in Century City.

Horse Racing Notes

Paseana, champion older filly or mare last year, runs at Santa Anita on Saturday in the $150,000 Santa Maria Handicap, one of the seven stakes she won last year. A year ago, the 6-year-old mare carried 120 pounds; her impost in the 1 1/16-mile race Saturday is 126. Paseana hasn’t run since winning the Breeders’ Cup Distaff on Oct. 31. Saturday’s field, with jockeys and weights: Lite Light, Gary Stevens, 114 pounds; Southern Truce, Corey Nakatani, 116; Paseana, Chris McCarron, 126; Ms. Aerosmith, Goncalino Almeida, 111; Re Toss, Adalberto Lopez, 115; and Race The Wild Wind, Kent Desormeaux, 117. . . . Pat Valenzuela called in sick, taking off his mounts Thursday. Valenzuela also was absent last Saturday.