[2] He worked part-time at the Mackay Turf Club's Ooralea Park as a handler from the age of twelve and in his senior school years rode racehorses as an amateur jockey.
He rode over one hundred winners on Queensland race tracks during the war years when amateurs were allowed to ride against the professional jockeys.
In 1954 Dick & Elaine bought Gresford from their client owner and it was the first horse to travel by air from Queensland to a race meeting in Victoria where under their regular jockey David Hetherington it won the Fawkner Highweight at Moonee Valley.
[3] Continuing success saw Roden in 1956 charged with the care of the New Zealand sprinter, El Khobar by owner Wolff Fisher.
[3] In 1967 Roden relocated to Sydney and bought a Randwick stable operation in High Street from Dan Lewis, renaming it Midstream Lodge.
[2] Roden stepped back from training in 1969 and under Neville Begg, Divide & Rule won the 1969 AJC Derby ridden by the Queensland Aboriginal jockey Darby McCarthy.
On the flight to Brisbane ten days before the event the horse suffered a head bump and injury but in spite of many journalists and punters dismissing the three-year old's prospects, it won the 1970 Cup.
[2] In a relatively short training career of less than two decades and with only a small team of horses his classic, group and listed winners included:[2] Roden lived out his retirement in the Blackall Ranges overlooking Queensland's Sunshine Coast.