James W. "Jimmy" Smith was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 Thoroughbred

Thoroughbred

The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word thoroughbred is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed...

 horse 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...

. He was the son of Tom Smith, trainer of Seabiscuit

Seabiscuit

Seabiscuit was a champion Thoroughbred racehorse in the United States. From an inauspicious start, Seabiscuit became an unlikely champion and a symbol of hope to many Americans during the Great Depression...

.

James Smith trained for automotive industrialist Charles T. Fisher

Charles T. Fisher

Charles Thomas Fisher was a Catholic American businessman and an automotive pioneer.Born in Norwalk, Ohio, Charles was the second son of Lawrence and Margaret Fisher. The family would grow to include seven boys and four girls...

 and won the 1940 Arlington Classic

Arlington Classic

The Arlington Classic Stakes is an American Thoroughbred horse race for 3-year-old horses held annually at the end of June at Arlington Park race track near Chicago, Illinois...

 with Fisher's colt, Sirocco

Sirocco

Sirocco, scirocco, , jugo or, rarely, siroc is a Mediterranean wind that comes from the Sahara and reaches hurricane speeds in North Africa and Southern Europe. It is known in North Africa by the Arabic word qibli or ghibli Sirocco, scirocco, , jugo or, rarely, siroc is a Mediterranean wind...

. A few years later he trained for the renowned owner of Idle Hour Stock Farm

Idle Hour Stock Farm

Idle Hour Stock Farm was a 400 acre thoroughbred horse breeding and training farm near Lexington, Kentucky, United States established in 1906 by Colonel Edward R...

, Edward R. Bradley

Edward R. Bradley

Colonel Edward Riley Bradley was an American steel mill laborer, gold miner, businessman and philanthropist. As well as a race track proprietor, he was the preeminent owner and breeder of Thoroughbred racehorses in the Southern United States during the first three decades of the 20th Century...

, for whom he
earlier rode as a jockey, riding and winning on such stars of the turf Black Helen

Black Helen

Black Helen was an American Thoroughbred race horse bred and foaled in the spring of 1932 at Colonel E. R. Bradley's Idle Hour Stock Farm in Lexington, Kentucky. Black Helen was the result of a mating between Bradley's best stallion, Black Toney, and the legendary "blue hen" mare La Troienne...

 at 2 and Blue Larkspur

Blue Larkspur

Blue Larkspur was a bay Kentucky-bred thoroughbred race horse. He was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1957, awarded the 1929 Eclipse Award for Horse of the Year, and ranks Number 100 in Blood-Horse magazine's top 100 U.S. thoroughbred champions of the 20th Century...

 at 4, among others.

Along with his father, James Smith trained for Maine Chance Farm

Maine Chance Farm

Maine Chance Farm was an American Thoroughbred horse racing stable in Lexington, Kentucky owned by cosmetics tycoon, Elizabeth Arden.Elizabeth Arden raced under the nom de course "Mr. Nightingale" until 1943 when she adopted the name Maine Chance Farm from her health spa in Mount Vernon, Maine...

.