Longtime Pennsylvania Thoroughbred trainer Donald R. White of Levittown, Pa., passed away on Jan. 17 at the age of 76 after a years-long battle with cancer.
A proud member of the U.S. Army's Special Forces unit known as the Green Berets while serving in Vietnam, White opened his own stable, Don White Racing Stable, based at Parx Racing in Bensalem, Pa., for more than 40 years.
Equibase records show White is a multiple stakes-winning trainer with 371 wins from 4,954 career starts dating back to 1982. His most recent victory came with Malibu Anthem at Parx on Jan. 12. In late December, White sent out Sweet Turn, owned by his wife Jane, to win the PTHA Trophy at Parx.
White said his favorite part of horse training was the challenge of preparing young Thoroughbreds for their new racing careers.
Jane White said she met her husband in Baltimore some 40 years ago.
“He was assisting trainer Hap Ravich with Maryland's first millionairess Jameela at the time,” she recalled. “It was instant love for me but it took a decade for this city girl schoolteacher knowing nothing about horses to catch him. I even tried buying a horse for him to train after a year, thinking that would escalate matters, but I still had to wait nine more years until he finally gave in.
“When we married in Hialeah in 1991, Don told me to study pedigrees and he would take care of the racing with all the homebreds I started sending him every year,” she continued. “'Here, Honey,' I said, 'See what you can do with this one.'
“I remember his mother warning me long ago in Swansboro, North Carolina, that horses would always come first to him, and they indeed are what made him get up every morning he could throughout his life,” she said. “Even at his hospital bedside the night before he died, as I watched him struggle with an oxygen tube and not knowing if he knew I was there, he raised an eyebrow when I mentioned the name of one of our horses, Sweet Turn.”
White will be deeply missed by his many friends, his racing family associates, and especially by his loving wife, Jane (Obst) and his children: Michael Rosenbaum (Tammie), and Stephanie White, as well as his grandson: Jan Michael Rosenbaum and his sisters: Dorothy Hansley and Linda Gurganus (Johnny).
Services were held Jan. 21 with interment private. A memorial race celebration in his honor at Parx is being planned for the spring.
In lieu of flowers, donations in his memory can be sent to Wounded Warriors veterans charity, https://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/.
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