I have a lot of experience with racing ralphs, it's on my XC bike right now. They are superfast and pretty durable, a great tire. They are also slick. I ended up taking it off the front and leaving it on the rear of my xc bike because of this.
For down country, I don't think it's a good tire. But it depends on what you mean by down country. I consider down country a do it all bike, between XC and enduro type of riding. Basically, one bike to rule them all.
I think the assegai and aggressors, the rekons are good also. I have a minion set up right now, and that feels so slow that I probably won't run them again.
I also don't recommend going above 2.4 (2.5 front) for down country, something about 2.6 tires feel so slow.