October 25, 1982

ARCADIA, Calif. WAYNE LUKAS has developed a sort of video game that could be called ''How Fast Is This Horse Going?'' He claims that you could try it out on ''the most knowledgeable horsemen in the world,'' and that ''not one in 5,000'' would get the right answer. To play the game, as he did with several top trainers at a recent yearling sale, Lukas puts on a video cassette of a July race at Hollywood Park and asks the player to keep his eye on the 2-year-old filly wearing No.1 on her saddlecloth. ''That doesn't look like a 2-year-old filly; that almost looks like a 3-year-old colt,'' some have protested, looking at the barrel-chested bay filly standing in the starting gate. Lukas smiles. His fun is just beginning.

E.T. may be afraid. He may be three million light years from home. But contrary to the advertising assertions of the company that made the top-grossing movie, ''E.T. - the Extra-Terrestrial,'' he is not totally alone. The wizened, pot-bellied figure and his initials are being reproduced in stuffed dolls, key rings and T-shirts -many of which are flagrantly illegal, according to Universal Pictures, the film's producer.

The finish in the women's division in the 13th New York City Marathon yesterday was not highlighted by the kind of down-to-thewire suspense that marked the men's race. But for Grete Waitz of Norway, the victory bore as much meaning. Inspired by the unpleasant memory of the recent injuries that forced her to drop out of her last two marathons, Mrs. Waitz won her fourth New York title in the last five years - completing what she would later call a ''safe'' race in 2 hours 27 minutes 14 seconds. And unlike the men's winner, Alberto Salazar, who won by four seconds with a wrenching sprint in the final moments, Mrs. Waitz, running relaxed and confident on the cool autumn day, easily outraced the record field of 2,600 women. She crossed the finish line at Tavern-On-The-Green in Central Park more than a minute ahead of her nearest foe, Julie Brown of San Diego. Such a showing, especially after her injuries, re-established the 29-year-old Mrs. Waitz as the most consistently dominant female long-distance runner in the world.

The Administration is basing its Soviet policy on the assumption that there will be an early change in the Kremlin leadership. Page A9. MOSCOW, Oct. 24 - A deepening chill appears to be settling into Soviet life as the Kremlin moves to eliminate stirrings of unorthodoxy and dissent that have survived previous campaigns of repression. Western diplomats here say that two principal factors appear to have contributed to the creation of this atmosphere: uncertainty over who will succeed Leonid I. Brezhnev as the Communist Party leader and the deeply strained relations with the United States. In recent months, the chill has manifested itself in a sharp increase in house searches, threats, beatings, interrogations and arrests carried out by the political police of the K.G.B., the Soviet intelligence and state security agency. The targets are individuals deemed threatening to the state.

Third-quarter corporate profits were weak. Some companies benefited from lower interest rates and from cuts in spending made earlier in the year. But in many cases, the gains were offset by poor sales and such unexpected problems as the devaluation of the Mexican peso and its consequences for trade. (D1.)