Tasmanian trainer Gary White calls time on iconic five-decade career

In a chaotic race to finish the day, jockey Jackson Radley's saddle had moved forward on Better Than Banksy, meaning he had to restrategise.

With the four-year-old chestnut gelding at his best when staying back before going hard on the home straight, Radley was forced to put him at the front of the field and tried desperately to hold on against Sweet Lucifer.

Better Than Banksy won by one hundredth of a second.

It was a fitting, and nail-biting, end to a 44-year career as a trainer for Gary White, who won with his first starter Race The Wind in 1980, although in far less stressful circumstances.

"Leigh Dunstan rode the horse, once he rounded the corner he drew away and won by five lengths," White recalled.

"To this day Leigh reminds me that he rode my first winner."

Winning has never been far away from White's grasp, the Glenorchy boy who grew up with his grandparents living across the road from the track has been synonymous with success during his five-decade span, including none other than the 2009 Magic Millions with Tempest Tost on the Gold Coast.

But his favourite memories are far closer to home.

Three Launceston Cups (Scruples 1985, Free Beer '95, '96) and two Hobart Cups (L'Espion '98, Lord Baracus 2000) sit highest in White's favourite wins, although the race in '98 stands alone.

With Free Beer running second and L'Espion winning, White had not only won his first Hobart Cup at the track which he'd spent the previous decades growing up and developing his passion for his craft, but he achieved a quinella.

"To win your home-town cup and to get up with two horses that are your newest foals ... that was just enormous," he said.

And while it pays the bills and supports the passion, winning was not what kept White in the industry for a five-decade span and it was not the reason why "there's been lots of tears" as his time came to a close.

"If a horse needs a rug and the trainer needs a jacket, the horse gets the rug," he said.

"It doesn't matter what financial situation you're in at the time, I think it's the passion for the animal [which makes a trainer] because even if you're lucky and you can make a living from it ... it's the fact that you're working with this majestic animal that responds and accepts every decision you make for them."

White said it was all the small parts of preparing horses to race which he loved most.

"Playing with my horses every day, washing them, picking them grass, feeding them, watching their coats change, I know it sounds all mushy but it's all the trivialities that I'm going to miss because I just loved the animal," he said.

"To derive income from something that you love doing and getting out and going to work every morning and doing what you want to do is a great buzz."