Disco

A GROUP of hard-working teen-agers at Northeast High School has been preoccupied over the past three months, honing disco moves, learning dialogue and preparing for the Dionysus Club's spring production of Friday Knight Fever, a musical comedy tribute to the 1970s. The musical joyfully parodies a time when mood rings and Magic Eight Balls revealed the wisdom of the world, Women's Lib empowered a new generation and disco music reigned. "Disco is not dead at Northeast," said Martin Le- Francois, teacher and club sponsor.

It was an era when polyester double knit was the height of fashion, when men started blow-drying their hair and Farrah Fawcett set the standard of female beauty. In short, it was the 1970s, and it wasn't pretty. But it was also an era with a beat, and you could definitely dance to it. The beat was disco, and it's pulsing with a vengeance in the stage adaptation of the 1977 movie Saturday Night Fever at the Lyric Opera House. The chance to see live disco dancing is the chief - and, for the most part, the only - attraction of this musical, which was adapted by native Baltimorean Nan Knighton and which retains and slightly augments the movie's Bee Gees-laden score.

Disco Rico, one of the top sprinters in the East, has suffered a leg fracture and will be retired to stud. The injury occurred during the colt's victory in the Lite the Fuse Stakes on Saturday at Laurel Park. "He took a couple of odd steps, but there was nothing to indicate this," said his trainer, Val Testerman. "I was shocked." The 4-year-old was taken to the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center, where an examination of his legs revealed the fracture. Disco Rico was to have made his next start in the Grade I, $300,000 De Francis Dash at Laurel on Nov. 17. There was talk around the track about a possible showdown with Xtra Heat, the speedy filly who ran a game second in the Breeders' Cup Sprint last weekend.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Disco Rico's run for a berth in the Breeders' Cup Sprint ended on a blustery afternoon at Belmont Park. Yesterday, in the $250,000 Forest Hills Handicap, the Pimlico-based Disco Rico zipped to the front but then, with a clear run to the finish in front of him, faded to last. "The trials and tribulations of horse racing," said Joe DiRico, the colt's owner from Boston, after conferring after the race with the trainer, Valora Testerman, and the jockey, Harry Vega, both from Maryland.

For Disco Rico, this is the day. Most of us in Maryland believe that the sprinter trained by Valora Testerman at Pimlico is one of the fastest horses in the country. Today, Disco Rico can prove it to everybody else. He competes in the $250,000 Forest Hills Handicap, a Grade II stakes of six furlongs at Belmont Park. Like other horses racing this weekend around the country, Disco Rico will try to earn for himself and his connections a spot in the prestigious Breeders' Cup races Oct. 27 at Belmont.

Some 300 people in polyester and psychedelic colors, big hair and platform shoes streamed into the Waxter Center, party faces on. Inside, a huge mirrored ball hung from the ceiling, pulsing light in time to disco music. It was a pop-culture nightmare: The '70s were back -- but at least it was in the name of charity. "This is our signature event," says Karen Bellesky, a grants manager at Chase Brexton Health Services. "The reason we do a retro dance is because back in 1978, Chase Brexton [opened]

Back when disco raged through the nation's strobe-lighted, mirror-balled dancehalls, Esther Phillips sang, "What a difference a day makes, 24 little hours." For Mike Veeck, it took 22 years. Thursday night, on the anniversary of baseball's biggest marketing blunder, the promoter finally apologized for Disco Demolition Night. Cue Love's Theme. Veeck, now a marketing consultant for the Florida Marlins, asked Harry Wayne Casey, better known as KC of KC and the Sunshine Band, to accept his apology on behalf of the entire disco world.

He had been away from the races since disappointing in the Breeders' Cup Mile last November, but the layoff was no impediment to Hap in the Grade III, $200,000 Dixie Handicap yesterday at Pimlico Race Course. The Bill Mott trainee took on a formidable field and prevailed by 1 1/4 lengths over long shot Make No Mistake to score his seventh win in 12 starts and increase his lifetime earnings to nearly $500,000. "It was a case of history repeating itself," Mott said. "This horse has always run well fresh.

In the field of leather-jacketed punks he inspired, Joey Ramone stood out. And not because he was a gawky 6-foot-6. The lead singer of the Ramones, who died Easter Sunday of cancer in New York at age 49, may have had a fierce single-mindedness about the crazy, fun, B-movie lyrics and the laser focus of his band, which virtually invented punk music. But he didn't need tattoos or piercings, a Mohawk or safety pins. He was fine with the T-shirt, ripped jeans, motorcycle jackets, high-top black sneakers and Beatle bob that had served every garage band since the '60s.

In CC's Honor popped to the lead, but that was the last time he saw the front, as 3-10 favorite Disco Rico stormed passed him in the first eighth of a mile and drew away to an easy victory in the $75,000 Fire Plug Stakes yesterday at Pimlico. Racing into a stiff wind down the home stretch, Disco Rico and jockey Harry Vega cruised under the finish line in 1 minute, 9 3/5 seconds for the six furlongs over a fast main track. In CC's Honor made a valiant effort to keep pace with the winner, finishing 3 1/2 lengths behind in second.