AETHELWULF’S PART-OWNER BACK FOR NEWCASTLE CUP 40 YEARS ON

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THE 1986 Newcastle Gold Cup meeting was the first time Roger White had ever been to the races.

Coincidence or not, 40 years later he will be back at Broadmeadow on Friday – but this time in a much different role.

White (everyone knows him as Dodge, he assures us it is on his birth certificate) part-owns the $300,000 Group 3 Cup hotpot Aethelwulf, who will be striving to break through in open company at his first attempt – and also first at 2300m - and confirm his favoritism for the Group 2 The Metropolitan (2400m) at Royal Randwick early next month, and then perhaps a trip south to secure a Melbourne Cup start.

Remarkably, it’s the first horse he has raced.

Wollongong-born White, who worked for four radio stations (KO, NX, HD and NEW-FM) during an 11-year stint in Newcastle in the 1980s and 90s, now runs a radio station at Orange (FM107.5) and also is the breakfast announcer.

No doubt he will be tipping Aethelwulf to his listeners before he and his wife Genevieve, who live not far from Orange’s Towac Park racecourse, drive to Newcastle tomorrow to be trackside for the Cup.

“I had met the late Newcastle Knights founding father Leigh Maughan, and the 1986 Cup (won by Indian Raj, ridden by Jim Cassidy) was the first time I had gone to a race meeting,” White recalled today.

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“I remember a chap yelling out cheering a horse at the winning post, but they still had another lap of the course to go.

“It was a great day, and really whet my appetite for racing.”

It wasn’t until the last few years, however, that White got involved in racehorse ownership – and it could not have happened at a more opportune time.

“I had been following Aethelwulf’s trainer Matthew Smith, and rang him to ask if he had any horses on the market.

“He said he had an open day coming up at his stables at Warwick Farm, and my wife and I drove to Sydney to meet him, and looked at a few unraced horses.

“I took a small share in Aethelwulf. Matt said he was a potential stayer and was going to take time, and we needed to be patient.

“He was 100 per cent correct, and Aethelwulf didn’t have his first start until December last year at Goulburn when he ran second in a 1500m Maiden.

“After a spell, he came back and won his Maiden at Newcastle over 1400m, and has now won four of his six career starts.

“I went to the races a few times at Broadmeadow when I was working in Newcastle, and it is exciting to be back there on Friday all these years later as a part-owner of a young horse with a great chance of winning the Cup.”

White’s first job in Newcastle in 1985 was covering sport for 2KO, and later he was the first employee of NEW-FM.

His radio career aside, he has a storied sporting background on the other side of the microphone as a competitor.

He was the first Australian male to compete in luge at the Olympics.

It was the 1994 Winter Olympics at Lillehammer in Norway, and he competed on the World Cup circuit for seven seasons.

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Though he retired from luge racing in 1999, he was chosen by Australian TV stations to commentate at another five Winter Olympics.

White also well remembers his first meeting with Leigh Maughan.

“Growing up as a kid at Wollongong, I had won a competition to name the Illawarra Steelers (later to merge with the St George Dragons as the St George Illawarra Dragons in 1999) when they entered the NRL in 1982,” he said.

“When I met Leigh, he joked that I was the young bloke who had stolen the Steelers name.

“Leigh was adamant they were going to call their team the Steelers because of the obvious connection with the then steelworks, but weren’t able to do so as they didn’t enter the competition until three years later and became the Newcastle Knights.”

HOOFNOTE: Just as Indian Raj started favorite ($2.75) when he won the Cup for trainer Brian Mayfield-Smith the day White first went to the races in 1986, so too is Aethelwulf on Friday.

But at much shorter odds; currently $1.45 with TAB.com.au against only seven rivals.

And Aethelwulf’s trainer won the last two races at Canterbury today, and is in blazing form.

*CAPTIONS - WHITE HOLDING SASH ON LEFT FOLLOWING AETHELWULF'S WIN AT CANTERBURY & WHITE ON AIR AT ORANGE

STORY JOHN CURTIS, SEPTEMBER 16, 2026 - PIC BRADLEY PHOTOS