Renowned thoroughbred trainer dies at 80

Melvin James and Tammy Gantt pose together during a reception for the opening of “The Heart of the Turf: Racing’s Black Pioneers” exhibit inside the Black History Museum at the Howard Academy Community Center in Ocala on Sept. 18, 2025. He passed away on Oct. 6. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette file photo]

Melvin James, hailed as a pioneer and trendsetter in the thoroughbred industry, and who trained the future Triple Crown winner Affirmed at Ocala’s Harbor View Farm, passed away on Oct. 6 at the age of 80.

James was remembered as a quiet and patient man, a husband and father of two daughters, and someone who liked to tinker with his car and truck.

“My father didn’t speak much but he meant what he said,” his daughter Carol James said, adding that he was “a man of faith in God” and “he was always helping somebody.”

Melvin died from cardiac health complications at the UF Health Shands Cardiology-Heart and Vascular Hospital, Carol said, and noted that she and her sister, Meltonia James-King, were by his side.

Steve Wolfson Sr., whose family acquired the property to open Harbor View Farm in 1959, wrote in an email that his recollections of Melvin date back to the 1970s.

“As Harbor View Farm’s local trainer, he did an outstanding job preparing new racing stock for the racetrack,” Wolfson wrote. “Trainers receiving a ‘Melvin James trainee’ complimented how well schooled and finely conditioned their new charges were. A classic example was 1977 two-year-old Affirmed and so many others he prepared ready to run AND win first time out.”

“Such a quiet, gentle and especially classy man will be greatly missed,” Wolfson added.

During an event held Sept. 18 at the Marion County Black History Museum inside the Howard Academy Community Center, Melvin was honored in the program as “the first Black person in Marion County to obtain a license as a thoroughbred trainer.” The event celebrated a number of area Black leaders from the horse and agricultural industries as the museum hosted the traveling Keeneland Association exhibit “The Heart of the Turf: Racing’s Black Pioneers.”

Tammy Gantt, Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association vice president of member services, events and sales, and Cynthia Wilson Graham, a local author, owner of Helping Hands photography and museum volunteer, were two of the primary organizers of the event.

Gantt knew Melvin for about 14 years and said he was responsible for “much more” than training Affirmed, including work with horse anatomy and mixing feeds.

A locally made permanent display highlighting pioneering area Black leaders in the horse and agricultural industry, which includes Melvin, will remain in the museum.

Melvin’s brother, Bobby James, served two terms as chairman of the Marion County School Board. He and his wife, Veronica, recalled in a phone interview that Melvin, who was born in Fairfield in northwest Marion County, grew up in southwest Ocala and went to Howard High School.

Carol said her father graduated from HHS in 1964. A biography at the museum states that he was captain of the school’s football championship team that year.

Melvin went to work as a groom at Harbor View Farm in 1965 and in 1975 began working with Affirmed as a yearling and found the horse to be “placid” and “almost bored” with the breaking and training procedures. He “proved the doubters wrong” when Affirmed went on to garner the Triple Crown in 1978, the biography indicates.

Melvin worked at Mockingbird Farm from 1996 to 2093 and Marablue Farm from 2002 to 2008. He retired on a 22-acre parcel where he raised horses and cattle. Melvin “for decades collaborated with University of Florida researchers on projects including horse weights…activity levels and optimum breeding times. He blended his own feeds in the 1970s and was involved in the development of feed mixed at the OBS Feed Company near downtown Ocala, the biography states.

During Affirmed’s reign as Triple Crown champion from 1978 to 2015, according to twinspires.com, Melvin would “recount to reporters the importance of Marion County to the breeding industry,” according to the biography.

Melvin is survived by his wife, Renee Parks James; brother Bobby James and wife, Veronica.; daughters Carol James and Meltonia James-King; stepdaughter Tasha L. West and stepson, Terrell A. Akins; according to an obituary by Hadley-Brown Funeral Home which is handling arrangements. The obituary lists Sierra N. Holmes, Andrea R. Laster, Cam’ron D. King, Levi N. West III, Aaron A. Akins, Elijah T. West, Andrew K. Akins as grandchildren. Carol said her father was a military veteran and the obituary notice states he will be buried at the Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell.

Visitation will be from 5 to 7 p.m. Oct. 13, at Hadley-Brown Funeral Home, 127 NW 20th St., Ocala. A celebration of life is planned for 10 a.m. Oct. 14 at New Zion Missionary Baptist Church, 728 NW 6th Ave., Ocala.