James P. Conway was an American Hall of Fame

National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame

The National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame was founded in 1950 in Saratoga Springs, New York, to honor the achievements of American thoroughbred race horses, jockeys, and trainers...

 trainer

Horse trainer

In horse racing, a trainer prepares a horse for races, with responsibility for exercising it, getting it race-ready and determining which races it should enter...

 in Thoroughbred horse racing

Thoroughbred horse race

Thoroughbred horse racing is a worldwide sport and industry involving the racing of Thoroughbred horses. It is governed by different national bodies. There are two forms of the sport: Flat racing and National Hunt racing...

 who trained forty-three stakes winners including five Champions

Eclipse Award

The Eclipse Award is an American thoroughbred horse racing award named after the 18th century British racehorse and sire, Eclipse. The Eclipse Awards, honoring the champions of the sport, are sponsored by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association , Daily Racing Form and the National Turf Writers...

 and a winner of two American Classic Races.

Before becoming a professional trainer in 1946, Conway worked at various racetrack jobs. His first major client was Dallas, Texas

Dallas, Texas

Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...

 hotel owner Ben Whitaker

Ben F. Whitaker

Ben F. Whitaker was a Dallas, Texas oilman with producing properties throughout the state of Texas, an owner of the Hotel Whitmore in Dallas, and a major owner and breeder of Thoroughbred racehorses including two Champions....

 for whom "Jimmy" Conway conditioned the 1948 and 1953 American Champion Three-Year-Old Filly, Miss Request

Miss Request

Miss Request was an American Champion Thoroughbred filly racehorse. Bred by Dallas, Texas businessman Ben Whitaker and raced under his wife's name, his sire was Requested, a good runner who won the 1942 Wood Memorial Stakes...

 and Grecian Queen

Grecian Queen

Grecian Queen was an American Champion Thoroughbred filly racehorse. She was bred by Dallas, Texas businessman Ben Whitaker and raced under his wife's name. A consistently good and durable runner at age two and three, she won at distances from five and one half furlongs to a mile and three...

. Whitaker died in April 1954, and Conway's next Champion was with another filly named Pucker Up

Pucker Up (horse)

Pucker Up was an American Champion Thoroughbred racing mare. She was bred by Dan and Ada Rice's Danada Farm, and raced under Mrs. Rice's name. Her training was handled by future U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee, Jimmy Conway and his assistant, Al Robertson.Racing in Chicago, in July she won the...

. Owned by Ada L. Rice

Dan and Ada Rice

Daniel F. Rice and his wife Ada L. Rice were American businesspeople, thoroughbred racehorse owners and breeders, and philanthropists. Dan Rice was educated in the public school system of Chicago, Illinois and spent two years at Depaul University and the University of Notre Dame. In 1919, he...

, Pucker Up was the 1957 American Champion Older Female Horse.

From 1962 to 1966 Jimmy Conway trained for John Galbreath's Darby Dan Farm

Darby Dan Farm

Darby Dan Farm is a produce, livestock, and thoroughbred horse breeding and training farm founded in 1935 near the Darby Creek in Galloway, Ohio by businessman John W. Galbreath. Named for the creek and for Galbreath's son, Daniel M. Galbreath , it was expanded from an original farm into a 4,000...

 with whom he would enjoy his greatest success. In his first year with Darby Dan, Conway conditioned the filly Primonetta

Primonetta

Primonetta was an American Champion Thoroughbred filly racehorse. Bred by John W. Galbreath and raced by his Darby Dan Farm, she was a full sister to the 1963 Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes winner, Chateaugay....

 to 1962 American Champion Older Female Horse honors then the following year won two of the U.S. Triple Crown

United States Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing

In the United States, the "Triple Crown" is usually the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing, a series of three Thoroughbred horse races for three-year-old horses run in May and early June of each year consisting of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes.While Daily Racing Form...

 races with Chateaugay

Chateaugay (horse)

Chateaugay was an American Thoroughbred Champion racehorse who won two of the three U.S. Triple Crown races. Bred at Darby Dan Farm near Lexington, Kentucky by his prominent owner, John W. Galbreath, Chateaugay was a son of Swaps, the 1956 U.S. Horse of the Year and a Racing Hall of Fame...

. The colt won the 1963 Kentucky Derby

Kentucky Derby

The Kentucky Derby is a Grade I stakes race for three-year-old Thoroughbred horses, held annually in Louisville, Kentucky, United States on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The race is one and a quarter mile at Churchill Downs. Colts and geldings carry...

 at 1¼ miles, finished second to Candy Spots

Candy Spots

Candy Spots was an American Thoroughbred racehorse that is best known for winning the 1963 Preakness Stakes and for coming in a close second and third, respectively, in the Belmont Stakes and Kentucky Derby to his rival Chateaugay...

 in the 1³/16 mile Preakness Stakes

Preakness Stakes

The Preakness Stakes is an American flat Thoroughbred horse race for three-year-olds held on the third Saturday in May each year at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. It is a Grade I race run over a distance of 9.5 furlongs on dirt. Colts and geldings carry 126 pounds ; fillies 121 lb...

, then won the 1½ mile Belmont Stakes

Belmont Stakes

The Belmont Stakes is an American Grade I stakes Thoroughbred horse race held every June at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. It is a 1.5-mile horse race, open to three year old Thoroughbreds. Colts and geldings carry a weight of 126 pounds ; fillies carry 121 pounds...

. Chateaugay would be Conway's fifth Champion, voted 1963 American Champion Three-Year-Old Male Horse.

Besides his 1963 win in the Kentucky Derby, Conway had four other horses who ran in the prestigious race: 1948 (3rd), 1957 (6th), 1968 (2nd), 1970 (12th).

After leaving the Darby Dan stable, in 1967 Conway returned to operating a public stable, training horses for notable owners such as Maxwell Gluck's Elmendorf Farm

Elmendorf Farm

Elmendorf Farm is a Kentucky Thoroughbred horse farm in Fayette County, Kentucky, and has been involved with horse racing since the early 19th century...

.

Following a lengthy illness, Jimmy Conway died at age seventy-three at Nassau Hospital

Winthrop-University Hospital

Winthrop-University Hospital was founded in 1896 under the name Nassau Hospital as Long Island, New York's first voluntary hospital. The location was originally constructed in 1900. It was renamed Winthrop-University Hospital in the 1980s to avoid confusion with Nassau County Medical Center, now...

 in Mineola

Mineola, New York

Mineola is a village in Nassau County, New York, USA. The population was 18,799 at the 2010 census. The name is derived from a Native American word meaning a "pleasant place"....

 on Long Island

Long Island

Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

. In 1996 he was inducted in the United States' National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.