LOS ALAMITOS : Lepton Gives Owners a Real Thrill

Michael and Billie Schwartz’s lifelong love affair with harness racing reached a high point when their Lepton was honored as 1990 California-bred horse of the year last weekend at Los Alamitos.

The Schwartzes, who live in Cowan Heights, near Santa Ana, have been avid standardbred fans since their younger days in New York.

“I’ve been loving it since I was 14,” said Michael Schwartz, 49, in a thick Bronx accent. “I started going to Monticello Raceway in the Catskill Mountains then. My uncle’s trainer was George Cliff. Jim Grundy was a provisional driver.” Grundy and Cliff both drive at Los Alamitos.

Michael met Billie, his wife of 23 years, on a date at Monticello.

“I lived in Boston a couple of years and owned some harness horses that raced in New England,” Schwartz said. “I moved to California 19 years ago and had no interest in owning at that time.”

Schwartz was busy laying the groundwork for a brilliant career. “I started with Compaq computers as the 19th employee,” Schwartz said. “I started their sales organization. In 1982, gross sales were zero. They will do over $4 billion now.”

After a meteoric rise to fame and fortune, Schwartz retired at 45. “I quit and decided to smell the roses,” Schwartz said. “I knew I was going to retire and was looking for a hobby. My wife has as big an interest in harness racing as I do and is as knowledgeable.

“I was friendly with Bill O’Donnell (a leading driver at the Meadowlands in New Jersey),” Schwartz said. “He said I should look up his father-in-law, John McGregor, who trains here. John, in turn, recommend Ross Croghan.

“Ever since, John has been trying to get me back.”

The Schwartzes own 16 horses in the Croghan stable. Lepton is clearly the queen.

The 4-year-old filly pacer won 12 of 13 starts last year and earned $117,580. During her career, she has won 19 of 23 races and earned $137,829.

Lepton is by Egyptian Dancer, a stallion who stood in California for two years before being returned to Illinois, out of Wolf’s Shalom, a Say Hello mare who never made the races. She was bred by Racing Sires Stable, whose David Kanefsky divides his year between Arizona and Illinois.

Lepton was sold as a weanling for $1,500 to Ev Lunde, who in turn sold her for $4,500 to Schwartz at a Pomona yearling sale.

Another bargain yearling at the sale was Positron, also bred by Racing Sires Stable and sired by Egyptian Dancer. The colt sold for $500 and has earned $57,040 for Andrew Taylor of Whittier and driver-trainer Lou Pena.

“Lepton and Positron are both names for fast-moving molecules,” Schwartz said. “Out of 60 horses, Lepton was the one Ross picked out of the sale. He just liked her conformation and the way she looked.”

Schwartz has been almost as lucky at horse auctions as with computer sales. “Ross picked our first horse in California out of 200 at a yearling sale here for $3,500,” Schwartz said. “Best of Dani earned over $250,000.” He also set a Los Alamitos track record of 1:54 1/5 for a 3-year-old colt pacer in 1987.

“Ross also picked out L.A. Law here for $3,500, and he earned over $100,000,” Schwartz said. “He bought Kiwi River from New Zealand for $45,000, and she earned over $300,000.

“Ross developed Lepton into a giant 2-year-old and giant 3-year-old, and she will be a giant 4-year-old.”

Colross Racing, Inc., which Croghan owns with his brother Colin of Australia, owns Lepton in partnership with the Schwartzes. Lepton turned in one of the worst performances of her career Friday, finishing last in the distaff invitational.

“She didn’t like the mud at all,” Croghan said. “It was hitting her under the belly and she felt out of control.”

Lepton equaled the track record of 1:55 1/5 for a 3-year-old filly pacer last year, and Croghan is confident she can go faster. “She loves the front end,” Croghan said. “In the Sire Stakes last year, she always had things her own way. I think she can be competitive in open company. But she has a tendency not to want to sit behind horses, and she’s got to learn to do that.”

Lepton can be testy at times, as trainer Tim Diliberto and caretaker Virginia Abbott can readily testify. “She was a stall-walker, so we got her a nanny goat,” said Abbott. “It helped, but she started biting the goat, so we had to take her away.”

Although Split Second, a full sister to Lepton, died, Schwartz remains optimistic that several other 2-year-old pacers preparing for their debuts with Croghan later at this meeting will fare well. They include colts Shiney Key and Bronx Park and fillies Whimsically, Animator and Hi Traci.

Hi Traci cost $4,500 in the Pacesetter Sale last year at Los Alamitos. The script sounds familiar.

Los Alamitos Notes

Lloyd Arnold, president and general manager of Los Alamitos, was honored as man of the year at the California Harness Horsemen’s Assn. awards dinner Sunday night at the track. Also honored, in addition to Lepton, as 3-year-old filly pacer and horse of the year, were the following: Eminem, 3-year-old colt pacer; Capital Game, 3-year-old colt trotter; Divine Spirit, 3-year-old filly trotter; Mighty Trouble, 2-year-old colt trotter; Capricious Stephi, 2-year-old filly trotter; Ner’to Do, 2-year-old colt pacer; Two in a Teepee, 2-year-old filly pacer; Camp David, trotting stallion, and Denali, pacing stallion.

Speedy Alba, who won the $10,000 invitational handicap pace in 1:56 3/5 on an off track Saturday, is beginning to fulfill the promise he showed last year before a virus knocked him out of most of the fall meeting. “He won his first start in the invitational last fall and looked good doing it, and then came down with a 105-degree temperatures,” trainer Bob Gordon said. “He probably couldn’t beat T K’s Skipper but he would have had a good chance to pick up a piece of change in the ($150,000) American Pacing Classic. He’s a perfect-mannered horse, and he’s just coming back to himself.” The 6-year-old New Zealand-bred gelding was bought last year for $30,000 by Bob and Loretta Staats of Mar Vista. “This is the best one I’ve had in 18 years in the business,” said Staats, a former liquor retailer.

Fred Kuebler, Los Alamitos’ director of racing, installed a 10% across-the-board increase in purses, retroactive to opening night. After 17 days of the meeting, overall attendance is averaging 4,935, up 5% from the corresponding dates last year, and handle is averaging $868,356, up 11.4% . . . Dare You To, owned by Joseph Alflen of Redondo Beach, finished fifth in the first leg of the Inter Dominion Pacing Championship at Christchurch, New Zealand, last weekend. The horse was second in the American Pacing Classic and fourth in the Breeders Crown last year.

Brad McKinzie was named vice president and general manager of Horsmen’s Quarter Horse Racing Assn. . . . A quarter horse meeting at Bay Meadows from May 17 to July 20 will be highlighted by the $325,000 Golden State Derby on June 22 and the $250,000 Bay Meadows Futurity on July 13 . . . Griswold, horse of the meet at the recently concluded quarter horse session after setting a world record of 43.99 seconds for 870 yards, is scheduled to face thoroughbred sprint star Sunny Blossom in a $100,000 winner-take-all match race at a half-mile at Santa Anita on April 13 or 14.