Generation Next: Sophie Titter on the importance of giving someone a shot

Thoroughbreds are practically in Kiwi expat Sophie Titter’s DNA. When she was a child, her mother and brother worked for fellow Kiwi Paul Belsham, and it was here that Titter got her first taste for the horse world.

“Pretty much my earliest memories are of being a 4-year-old running around Paul Belsham’s stable,” Titter told TTR AusNZ. “I think everyone had to save me, more times than I was actually helpful!”

Titter grew up immersed in racing; her mother worked for the Queen Mother in England, and all manner of relatives from her grandfather to her brother were jockeys or rode trackwork. It seemed inevitable that she would become another family member to take to the saddle. At age 14, she started working for a trainer and quickly learned the ropes of racehorse care.

Over to Australia

When she was 16, Titter knew she wasn’t set on a conventional educational path and she made the leap across the Tasman to Australia.

“I definitely wasn't going to go to university,” she said. “I wasn't going to do anything like that. I knew that horses were going to be my career.

“I sent my CV over here, as where we were, there weren't as many stud opportunities, So I got into contact with a stud over here that was looking for workers.”

That stud would be Stuart Ramsey’s Turangga Farm, at the time a renowned racehorse nursery in the Hunter Valley. Over the years, the farm has produced many top level horses, including Hong Kong Horse of the Year Able Friend (Shamardal {USA}), Sun Stud’s late stallion Fighting Sun, and, in recent years, his G1 TS Smith S.-winning daughter Chain Of Lightning.

The stallion Trusting spent much of his career based at Turangga, followed by Better Land, a winning son of the late Amelia’s Dream (Redoute’s Choice). Titter wasted no time in taking up their offer - jumping on a plane and arriving in Scone within eleven days of taking the job.

Ultimately Titter stayed almost three years at the boutique operation, rotating between all areas of the stud as the season demanded. The small setup suited her well, building her skills across stud life from yearling sales to foaling down mares, and everything in between.

Downsizing and upsizing

In 2017, Turangga Stud was set to disperse as Ramsey downsized his operation as his son John set to establish himself more independently in the industry, and much of the broodmare band was sold, including Listed Gimcrack S. winner Brilliant Bisc (Elvstroem), who sold to Sir Owen Glenn’s Go Bloodstock for $600,000, smashing the previous record for public auction at Scone’s sale yards.

The staff also dispersed, Titter first went down the road to Toolooganvale Broodmare Farm, owned by Geoffrey Harris, for a year. The farm has produced the likes of Group 2-winning Savanna Amour (Love Conquers All), G2 Skyline S. winner Promitto (Divine Prophet), and Nothingilikemore (Husson {Arg}), a rare successful filly in Hong Kong who took out the Listed Hong Kong Classic Mile.

“It was another boutique stud, so you did everything,” Titter said, which suited her skillset and personality well. The following year, she spent a few months at Newgate Farm, when the operation was still split across three locations including Wakefield Stud. Capitalist and Flying Artie’s first foals arrived in her time working with the Newgate broodmares, among them G2 Ajax S. winner Democracy Manifest (Flying Artie) and Marine One, who now stands at stud at Mogumber Park.

“The reason I went to Newgate was just to try a bigger stud and see if it was the kind of thing I was wanting to do, whether there was a sector that I wanted to stay within,” Titter said. But it ultimately wasn’t the perfect fit for her - she craved the variety and rotation of a smaller operation.

So when John Ramsey approached her with a job offer, Titter pivoted back to racing. Initially she worked for Ramsey at Scone Racetrack - where the trainer prepared Never Listen (Trusting) to leap in one preparation from a Scone maiden win to running second in the G1 VRC Oaks to Miami Bound (Reliable Man {GB}) - until Ramsey sold his trackside stables in 2020 and returned to Turangga Farm.

“I really do enjoy the racing side of things,” she said. “It's different, but it's enjoyable, even though you've got your early mornings and you could be coming back from races in the middle of the night.”

“It's exciting. You get nervous, even though they're not your horses.”

Sea change

In July of last year, Titter made the move south to Two Bays Farm in Victoria, a far cry from the Valley where she had spent so many years establishing her. The offer of work at the boutique establishment came at the perfect time.

“Someone mentioned me to them, and then mentioned them to me,” Titter said. “I was looking to move out of Scone anyway because I’d been there since I was 16, and I hadn’t really seen too much of Australia.

“So it was kind of perfect - and the Mornington Peninsula is just amazing. It’s a small team, so there’s a lot of solo work, which suits me.”

Titter’s sea change came with a title change to assistant manager at Two Bays, and with it, a return to the holistic kind of stud life that she prefers. Established in 2012 by Ross Ferris, Two Bays Farm delivers around 10 foals a season, and offers boutique yearling preparation and broodmare agistment.

“We have had a really good season,” she said. “We had a really successful Melbourne Premier sale, and then our weanling sale knocked it out of the park.”

Two Bays achieved their greatest yearling price to date when they prepared and sold an Alabama Express daughter of Lucy’s Look (Lonhro) at the Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale this year, where Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, Kestrel Thoroughbreds, and Brad Mccarthy Bloodstock paid $370,000 for the filly. An incredible victory from a mare who was bought by her owners Manner Lodge Thoroughbreds for $8,000 in 2022.

Titter is excited to see the first crop of Two Bays foals that she has had a hand in bringing into the world arrive at the yearling sales next year. A Street Boss (USA) colt out of city winner Foxpack (Foxwedge) is a highlight of the 2023 foal crop for her.

“We sold him to Segenhoe at the weanling sales,” she recalled. “He was an absolutely cracking colt. He’s headed to (Gold Coast) Magic Millions, and I’m very excited to see him sell.

“It’s exciting to see a horse with our brand going up to Magics and hopefully selling well.”

A good teacher

The real highlight of her job, however, is inspiring and teaching the next generation. Titter was nominated for and received the Thoroughbred Breeders Victoria Stud Staff Support Line Rising Star Award at the end of the 2023/24 season for her hard work and dedication to teaching her staff.

“It was Rob (Carlisle), my manager, who nominated me,” Titter said. “They're an amazing farm to work for (in regards to) recognition - even just saying thank you and everything.”

Passing skills on is deeply important to Titter.

“I really do love being able to do hands-on teaching with people, and having that time to do it, because I find that gets lost in a lot of places that have a lot of staff,” she said. “Often no one (there) has the time to stand there and give someone a go at doing something, because it's just easier to do it yourself.

“The only way you can get somewhere is if someone has taught you or someone's given you the time and the opportunity to do it.”

While she also hopes that Two Bays can continue to flourish in the spotlight, her passion lies in ensuring the next generation of industry participants benefit from her experience and the opportunities that others have given her.

“I've been very lucky that people have given me a shot, and been willing to teach me and the people that I've worked alongside have been good teachers, but I know that's not the case everywhere. I just want to be one of those people that someone one day says, ‘They taught me a lot’.”