Generation Next: Racing, rugby, and a warhorse - Mitchell Ralph's path to the Hunter Valley

Growing up on his parents’ dairy farm on the Bay Of Plenty in the nineties, Mitchell Ralph was never far away from a thoroughbred. Grandson of prolific Kiwi trainer John Ralph, he was six years old when he first sat on a racehorse.

“I remember at (grandfather’s) place, Dad was riding a horse out in the morning and I walked out to see the horse, and then dad put me on the back of the horse after he'd gone for a bit of track work,” Ralph retold the story to The Thoroughbred Report. “The horse bolted with me on the back of it, and I just remember holding on for dear life and dad screaming, ‘Pull on the reins, pull on the reins!'”

A bit of gravel rash was the worst injury that Ralph suffered from the incident, and it did not dent his growing love for thoroughbreds at all.

When Ralph was 10, his grandfather took G1 Kelt Capital S. winner The Message (NZ) (Gold And Ivory {USA}) across the Tasman to raid some of Australia’s finest races. The Message’s spring campaign in 1999 started with running second in the G2 Memsie S. and wove a line through the G1 Underwood S., where he narrowly missed the placings by 0.3l, onto starts in the G1 Cox Plate and the G1 Melbourne Cup. The gelding would return the following year for another assault on the Cox Plate, and looking back, the magnitude of the venture is not lost on Ralph.

“I didn't quite understand the gravity of it,” Ralph recalled. “I wish it was (happening) now, if you know what I mean? I was a bit younger and obviously I would appreciate it a lot more if it was now.”

Ralph’s father eventually sold the dairy farm and moved into real estate, before taking out his trainer’s licence in earnest thanks to Santa Monica (NZ) (Per Incanto {USA}). He had dipped his toe into training as a younger man, before the dairy herd became a priority, but Santa Monica saw him return to the scene and win at the highest level, when the mare took out the G1 Railway S. in 2019.

“A couple of the clients that he (Stephen Ralph) had were into racehorses and bred a couple,” Ralph said. “They trained the mother of Santa Monica who won a couple of races, then dad handled Santa Monica for a lot of her early education, he broke her in, he rode her every day. Then she won a Group 1, which was massive, and it was for clients when dad was (still) a real estate agent.

“So it’s a really cool sort of story that took about 10 years to fully develop.”

How Dundeel became Ralph’s career catalyst

Training was never really on Ralph’s mind as a career, however. While he “very casually” rode trackwork as a teenager, rugby was more his sport of choice, and after attending university, he spent 18 months in Western Australia working in the mines in Kalgoorlie.

“I was sick of being a poor university student,” he said. Returning to New Zealand after that stint, Ralph headed to Westbury Stud, where he spent two years working as a stallion handler before he would be drawn across the Tasman again.

It would be in pursuit of another great Kiwi raider: Dundeel (NZ).

“I was the biggest fan of Dundeel,” Ralph said. “He was kind of the reason why I came to Arrowfield.

“New Zealand, you know, we're a small country with big results with racing and rugby and things like that. He was a small horse and he came over to big bad Australia where the racing is extremely competitive, and I just remember falling in love with him as a racehorse and what he did.”

The stocky son of High Chaparral (Ire) had a single start in his homeland before New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame trainer Murray Baker took him across to Australia. His first Australian preparation began with four straight wins, culminating in victory in the G1 Spring Champion S. over the favourite, Proisir. The performance is etched in Ralph’s mind.

“I just remember all the talk about him (was) saying he can't win. So it was the coolest race ever, it was a real strategic race. (He had) a young James McDonald riding him and it was a real tactical affair.” Ralph has a perfect memory of the performance, where the bullish colt was released out of a pocket coming round the home turn and then kept coming, downing Proisir by 0.2l.

“Dundeel’s putting his ears back, he's trying and he (McDonald) pulls the stick from the right to the left with him in one stride and then gets up. It was the greatest call ever and instantly all of that just helped cement my real love for Dundeel.”

Dundeel’s retirement to stud prompted Ralph to consider returning to Australia. He confessed to always following Australian racing, more so than the racing at home, and his time at Kalgoorie had been fairly enjoyable. Ralph looked into what studs he could work for, and it didn’t long for him to make a decision.

“When it really came down to it, who do I want to work with? I want to work with Dundeel,” Ralph said. “So I found Paul Messara’s number on the (Arrowfield Stud) website and gave him a cold call, and it went from there.

Ralph arrived at Arrowfield Stud in the autumn after Dundeel’s first foals were on the ground, from a first book full of quality mares such as Champion 2YO Miss Finland (Redoute’s Choice) and triple-Group 2 winner Sylvaner (NZ) (Danasinga) and spent the next six years splitting his time between yearlings and the stallion barn. Ralph was keen to support the stallion that had inspired his move, and brought a Kiwi mare across the Tasman to be served by Dundeel in the early years of his career.

Magic Belle (NZ) (Keeper) was a special choice for Ralph: she had been a Listed winner trained by his father. Further still, the damsire of her second dam was Te Puninga (NZ), a three-time juvenile winner who won the G3 Pago Pago S. and ran seventh in the G1 Golden Slipper. Most notably, he had been trained and then stood at stud by Ralph’s grandfather.

“She’s our family horse,” Ralph said. “Dad trained her to win a stakes race and then would have probably sent it to his own stallion or not bred her commercially. And then I said, ’Can I use her? Can I bring her to Australia?’

“So I brought her here to Arrowfield and sent her to Dundeel for a couple of years before the big service fee increase.”

From the sales ring to the covering shed

In 2017, Ralph was hands-on during the preparation of one of Arrowfield’s current rising stars, The Autumn Sun.

“It was my first Easter sale at the old Inglis complex, he was the cruisiest character you've ever met,” said Ralph. “He was so calm, so quiet, nothing ever fazed him, and then even when he was racing you saw post-race, he'd stand there for a photo and wouldn't move. Now he's the same kind of dude, he's just so relaxed, and obviously he passes that on to his stock too.”

The following year, Ralph assisted in running the Inglis Classic Yearling Sale preparation, where a special son of Dundeel stood out from the crowd.

“I worked on the draft with Castelvecchio and I remember him as clear as day,” said Ralph. “I remember saying, ‘Geez, he looks like he's got a real stallion's head’. I met the people who ended up being his owners at the sale for the first time, they came to look at a horse and I said, ‘Make sure you take a look at this other Dundeel’. I pulled him out for them, and they loved him, so they went and bought him. I'm great friends with them now.

“I just loved that they obviously loved the horse. They bought him and now they have had all this success.”

Through Ottavio Galletta’s ownership of Castelvecchio, Ralph met and became good friends with conditioner Richard Litt and visited the stables often during Castelvecchio’s racing career. Litt was also the original trainer and purchaser of Magic Belle’s first foal, a dual winning filly named Spellz (Dundeel {NZ}).

“It comes full circle. I remember him as a yearling, and the next thing you know, he comes back to the farm and I'm dealing with him in the covering shed.”

Castelvecchio’s progeny have exploded over the spring carnival, where three individual stakes winners have emerged from his first crop of 3-year-olds and compiled five stakes wins between them. Ralph has always believed in him, sending Magic Belle to him for two years, for an unlucky slip and a miss.

“It's really interesting to see the development of a stallion and his career, and what people say early on,” he added. “Now everyone knows that he's (Castelvecchio) done what he's done and now he's hot property.”

Fuelling passion with purpose

In 2019, Ralph spent the breeding season at Shadai Stallion Station in Japan, before transitioning into a sales and nominations role two years ago, Ralph believes that his background in racing gives him an edge when it comes to promoting the roster. His passion for the sport and excitement over the increasing use of data collection caught the attention of Arrowfield Stud proprietor John Messara.

“I was always sort of doing little projects leading up to me getting into the office and being in sales,” Ralph said. “John Messara or Sally Gordon would pass certain little projects on to me, just because I was always wanting to do things, and they identified that I'd do very well in sales and nominations. And I thought I would too, because I just love talking to people about horses.

“Like a lot of the time, there's plenty of people that breed their horses as their hobby, and that's their passion and they love it. I am also passionate. I love talking to other people about their horses. People have different views on how to breed a good horse - there's no right way to breed a good champion horse.”

A passion that still very much burns bright in Ralph’s family. His brother Dylan has worked extensively for several of New Zealand’s premier breeding operations and now operates under his own Ralph Thoroughbreds banner, and his father still trains and stands his own stallions.

“It’s an all-consuming game,” said Ralph. “They can be big hours, but no one’s doing it for a paycheck. Everyone's doing it because they obviously love the horses.”