BREEDERS CUP : Odds Are, Horse of Year to Emerge : Eclipse Awards: Six of the last seven winners of the top honor have come out of the racing program that will be renewed today at Santa Anita.

Nine Daily Racing Form handicappers have assessed today’s $3-million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita and picked five winners.

And there are at least that many scenarios as the horse-of-the-year contest will be played out in seven races worth $10 million before 50,000 or more fans.

In the last seven years, the horse of the year has been determined six times by Breeders’ Cup races, the exception being Criminal Type, who won the North American title in 1990 without running on American racing’s richest day.

The last five times the Breeders’ Cup provided the horse-of-the-year clincher, the champions--Ferdinand, Alysheba, Sunday Silence, Black Tie Affair and A.P. Indy--came out of the Classic. In 1986, the first time the Breeders’ Cup was run at Santa Anita, Lady’s Secret was voted the title after winning the Distaff.

Not all of this year’s horse-of-the-year candidates are running in the Classic. Kotashaan is in the picture because of his fine record on grass and over a track that he loves. He will be favored in the $2-million Turf.

Sky Beauty has a five-race winning streak, all in New York, and if she wins the $1-million Distaff, the daughter of Blushing Groom might become the first 3-year-old filly to be voted horse of the year since Busher and Twilight Tear won consecutive titles in 1944 and ’45.

A 2-year-old hasn’t been horse of the year since Secretariat in 1972, but Dehere will be a candidate for the title if he outruns a group of relatively unseasoned opponents in the $1-million Juvenile. Dehere has run six times, more than any horse in the field except Flying Sensation, and would go over $1 million in purses with a victory.

“This horse would get my vote if I had one,” said Chris McCarron, who has ridden Dehere in his last three victories.

Some say that Dehere hasn’t run that fast, that he merely is a very good horse rather than the second coming of Secretariat. Three weeks ago, he won the Champagne Stakes at Belmont Park, running a mile in 1:35 4/5. The 1 1/16-mile Juvenile will be his first start beyond the Champagne distance.

“I think that his final time wasn’t that quick because the (early) fractions weren’t that fast,” McCarron said.

Those who actually determine horse of the year are about 250 turf writers, track racing secretaries and Racing Form personnel.

Trainer Bobby Frankel is probably right when he says that if Bertrando wins the Classic, he deserves to be horse of the year. Bertrando won a race at Santa Anita in January, then lost five in a row before winning the Pacific Classic at Del Mar and the Woodward at Belmont Park in less than a month late in the year. Even a victory today would, in other years, make Bertrando horse of the fall, not horse of the year. But 1993 has been a year without any remarkable achievement.

Bertrando’s owners are paying an extra $360,000 to run, because their horse wasn’t nominated for $500 when he was a foal. Other supplementary starters in today’s races are Best Pal for $360,000 in the Classic and Paseana for $200,000 in the Distaff.

A defeat for Bertrando in the Classic would open the ballot box for Kotashaan, Sky Beauty and Dehere, and perhaps even Peteski if he scores an upset in the Classic.

Peteski’s trainer, Roger Attfield, would have preferred running the 3-year-old Canadian colt in the Turf, but was overruled by his owner, Earle Mack.

“I think the horse is that much better on grass,” Attfield said. “But he’ll be very competitive in the Classic, and there’s no question in my mind that he will be horse of the year if he wins.”

Peteski is 12-1 on the morning line. He swept the Canadian Triple Crown this summer--two races on dirt, one on grass--then moved to the lead early before being outrun by Wallenda and Saintly Prospector in the Super Derby at Louisiana Downs. Peteski lost by a neck.

Dirt runners usually have the best shot at horse of the year. John Henry was the last grass horse to win the title, in 1984.

Kotashaan has made few mistakes, his five victories since mid-February marred only by a loss by a nose to Luazur in the Del Mar Handicap.

“I think the best group of grass horses has been in California,” said Richard Mandella, Kotashaan’s trainer. “The dirt horses have been hit or miss this year. The horse of the year will go to the horse that looks best when the day is over. There are a lot of horses with possibilities, and going in, I think our chances are as good as anybody’s.”

Recently sold to Japanese interests who will take over Kotashaan after today, the 5-year-old will continue racing this year, with Mandella scheduled to saddle him in the $3.4-million Japan Cup later this month.