LOS ALAMITOS : Aussie Ross Croghan Is Mr. Consistency in Driver Rating Game

Driver Ross Croghan chuckled at the suggestion that his name in the Los Alamitos program should be listed as Ross Croghan A. After all, standardbreds from Australia carry that letter in the program, the better to identify them.

But the Australian-born Croghan, 36, has been earning A’s for excellence in the sulky since first visiting California in 1976. He settled here in 1979 and has compiled a Universal Driver Rating System (UDRS) mark of .325 or better every year since 1985, figures that might make even Tony Gwynn and Wade Boggs blink.

Croghan hit a career-high .400 last year, the second-highest figure in North America. He is well on his way to a second straight UDRS title at Los Alamitos with a .353 average and a month to go the the meet. Third in dashes won with 63, Croghan leads the meet in winning percentage, in-the-money percentage and purse earnings with about $430,000. He drove a record seven consecutive winners on a Sacramento program in 1989.

Croghan, who wears blue silks with a large black star on both the front and back, puffed on a cigarette in the drivers’ room between races. Blessed with a dry wit and a pleasant irreverence, Croghan said he was only nicknamed Crocodile around the track after a simulcast host stamped him with it.

“I don’t see the big deal with Paul Hogan,” said Croghan of the Australian star of “Crocodile Dundee.” “I was here before he was. By the way, I’ve never seen a crocodile in my life.”

Croghan doesn’t even buy Hogan’s pitch on the Australian tourism commercials.

“You used to have a whole compartment when you flew over,” he said. “Now, all the airlines are too crowded.”

Croghan smiled at the perception of the land Down Under by some Americans.

“I had people asking me what we do when it’s dark six months of the year, or “Australia? Oh, yes, isn’t that near England somewhere?’ ”

Croghan learned more about pacers and trotters than kangaroos or koala bears at a young age. He grew up in Sydney, the son of harness trainer Noel Croghan. After driving in Australia part of the year and visiting several tracks in the U.S., Croghan opened a public stable in California.

“My younger brother, Colin, and I pooled our money together to start Colross Racing,” he said. “We own, train or manage about 80 horses, of which about 30 are in training. The other 50 are anything from broodmares to foals to yearlings to stallion shares.”

Colin is a heavy-machinery dealer in Brisbane and remains involved in Colross only financially.

The Croghan stable also includes several other owners and the business requires so much attention that Croghan hired Tim Diliberto to train five years ago, leaving him free to drive and manage.

California harness racing relies heavily on horses from Australia and New Zealand.

“We’re as isolated from the East as we are from New Zealand,” said Croghan. “You get 10 or 20% better value for your money there (New Zealand). They’re mostly American bloodlines, and since they don’t do much racing at 2, they’re still relatively fresh at 3 and 4.”

“I have two agents in New Zealand--Peter Blanchard, a leading trainer, and Kevin Townley, a catch-driver. I get about 40 head from them each year. Since I can’t buy them all, they’re all for sale.”

Croghan thanked his father for his influence in his success.

“He taught me to be a horseman first and treat each horse as an individual,” Croghan said. “He just had an amazing talent. I used to watch him buy a horse for $600 and win free-for-alls with him.

“Driving, I used to idolize Shelly Goudreau (killed in a 1982 spill at Hollywood Park). Even now, he was the most heady driver I ever saw. The difference between a good driver and a bad driver is the good driver makes fewer mistakes. Shelly made almost none, and he drove race after race after race.”

Croghan began the week with 991 victories in North America and should hit 1,000 before the end of this month.

“I’m actually around 1,300 but I won about 300 races in Australia that were not recorded here,” he said.

Croghan has driven several stars in recent years, including Kiwi River, Canberra Del and track record holders Best of Dani, Red Star Fantasy and Capuchine.

“I had tremendous respect for Canberra Del,” said Croghan. “She was close to the fastest I ever sat behind. She set a Hollywood Park track record of 1:55 4/5 but she broke a knee at 5 and was retired.

“Kiwi River was kind of extra special too. She won 33 races all over the country, earned $300,000 in two seasons and went in 1:54 at the Meadowlands. She was just bred to Jaguar Spur.”

Croghan’s newest star is Lepton, a 3-year-old filly pacer who won her sixth race in as many starts this year last Friday night in a $16,966 Cal Breeders’ Stake. She has won 13 of 15 starts and earned more than $100,000.

“She’s the best young filly I’ve ever had,” said Croghan. “I bought her early in her 2-year-old year at the Pomona sale for $4,500. She’s the first foal of her dam, which I always look for.”

Colross owns Lepton in partnership with Michael Schwartz, a retired computer company whiz from Santa Ana.

“Out of 60 horses, she was the one Ross picked out at the sale,” said Schwartz, 48. “In 1984, he picked out our first horse, Best of Dani, out of 200 at a sale. He also picked out Kiwi River, who came over from New Zealand.”

Harness Racing Notes

One of the sentimental favorites at the meet is Equus Mini, a 4-year-old mare who is the smallest horse of racing age on the grounds. Equus Mini measures only 13-3 hands, weighs less than 900 pounds and wears a 50-inch hopple, four or five inches shorter than the average. “She’s all heart; she never gives up,” said owner-trainer Don Koenig after she scored the fourth victory in her last five starts Friday. . . . Koenig, who rides a bicycle the quarter mile from the receiving barn to the winner’s circle after the races, is a former basketball guard at Ithaca College. He averaged 17 points for the school in New York in 1974.

Los Alamitos is hoping to arrange a qualifying race under the lights before it closes April 14 for Till We Meet Again, national 2-year-old pacing champion of 1989. The 3-year-old colt, who has wintered here in the Larry Rathbone stable, is expected to go to Sacramento after this meet before heading east for a race at Vernon Downs in New York in mid-May. . . . Two other leading sophomores stabled at Los Alamitos are Tommy Mohawk with Marc Aubin and Main Street with Peter Wrenn. Tommy Mohawk, an Illinois-bred, set a mark of 1:58 2/5 last year while winning five of seven starts, mostly in Chicago. Main Street, a Michigan star, won a $100,000 stake at Jackson last year.

The leading sophomore in California at the moment is clearly Eminem. As dominant in the colt ranks as Lepton is with the fillies, Eminem made it six in a row Saturday in a $16,797 California Breeders’ Stake for Rick Plano in 1:56 1/5.