THE 'PEOPLE'S HORSE' OF JAPAN

Japan's reigning Horse of the Year, Kitasan Black, has two more races before he retires at the end of the year.

The 5-year-old is the defending champion in one of Japan's biggest races.

Kitasan Black, Japan's reigning horse of the year, won his title in part because of the dominant victory in last year's Grade 1 Japan Cup.

One Sunday last, at Tokyo Racecourse, he will try to become only the second back-to-back winner of the race that was created to put Japan on the international racing stage.

The Japan cup was first held in 1981, and unlike all other races at the time, which were restricted to Japanese-bred runners, it was designed to welcome competitor's from around the world in order-

To measure the quality of Japan's racehorses, it remains an international invitational to this day.

''The Japan Cup was the very first  international race to take place in Japan,'' said Naohiro Goda, the international representative for Japan Racing Horse Association {J.R.H.A.}.

''The racing and breeding industry in Japan was isolated before that, and all of us involved in racing and breeding were convinced of the quality of Japanese horses was inferior to foreign horses.''

That feeling proved true with the inaugural running, which went to an American mare named Mairzy Doates, who was owned by the New York City art dealer Arno D. Schefler.

For the Japanese, the pain of losing did not stop there.

''The first four finishers in the first running of the Japan Cup were foreign raiders,'' Goda said.

''That was the moment when all of us in Japan started to work hard to improve the quality of Japanese-bred and Japanese-trained horses.''