Bred by Hanover Shoe Farms, as a yearling he was purchased for $58,000 by trainer Stewart Firlotte at the 1981 Standardbred Horse Sale Company's Harrisburg, Pennsylvania auction.
[2] At age three, Ralph Hanover won the 1983 Triple Crown for pacers by capturing the Messenger Stakes at Roosevelt Raceway on June 18,[3] the Cane Pace at Yonkers Raceway on August 20,[4] and the Little Brown Jug at the Delaware County, Ohio Fair Grounds on September 22.
[6][7] In addition to his 1983 Triple Crown wins, Ralph Hanover won seventeen additional pacing events including the very important Adios and Meadowlands Pace in the United States and the Prix d'Été in Canada at Blue Bonnets Raceway in which Ralph Hanover set a new world record for the fastest mile by a three-year-old on a five-eighths mile track with a time of 1:54 flat.
He set a second world record time for three-year-old pacers on a half-mile track when he was clocked in 1:55 3/5.
He was eventually sent to stand at Grand Royal Farms in Vienna, Ontario where he was pensioned before the 2001 breeding season at the age of 21.