His father, William Smallpeice Whitington, came to South Australia in his own ship, the New Holland, loaded with merchandise including the colony's first thoroughbred stallion, arriving in July 1840.
[3] In 1883 Parliament passed the Totalizator Repeal Act, which had the immediate effect of making race-courses much less profitable, and the old South Australian Jockey Club, whose finances were in a precarious state, was forced to relinquish the Morphettville racecourse to the Queensland Mortgage Company.
In 1888 Whitington, who had previously had a supervisory role at race meetings,[5] and whose employers John and William Pile were prominent racegoers, was approached by T. F. Wigley[6] to help revive the Club, and Whitington convened a meeting in the arbitration room of the Stock Exchange in Pirie street on 19 September 1888, presided by Sir Richard Baker.
The racing editor of The Register wrote at the time: The writer proved correct: largely due to Whitington's scrupulous management, the SAJC was able in 1895 to exercise its "right to purchase" from Browne, who had in the interim acquired Pell's then Wigley's shares.
[10] Whitington had few interests outside his involvement with horse racing apart from canary breeding and his family — he was married with four daughters and two sons.