Arkansas Owner James A. Winn Jr. Dead

James A. Winn Jr., whose runners included grade I winner Proper Reality, died Aug. 12 at his Hot Springs, Ark., home. He was 80 and had been ill with Parkinson's disease for eight years.

Winn and his wife, Juanita, campaigned a stable of runners together, but the horses were bred and raced in her name. Proper Reality was the most notable. The son of In Reality captured the 1988 Arkansas Derby (gr. I) at Oaklawn Park and scored grade I wins the following year in the Metropolitan Handicap over Seeking the Gold and Dancing Spree and in the Philip H. Iselin Handicap.

Proper Reality retired from racing with earnings of $1,701,650 and entered stud at the Hancock family's Claiborne Farm near Paris, Ky. Winn later moved Proper Reality to Kilkerry Farm in Arkansas, where he currently stands.

The Winns, whose runners were regulars at the Oaklawn meeting, campaigned 15 stakes winners, including one in partnership with another party. Thirteen of them were homebreds. Their first stakes winner, Proper Princess, became the dam of Proper Reality and three other stakes winners. The Winns were breeders of 19 added-money winners.

Winn, a native of Little Rock, Ark., and graduate of the University of Arkansas, was a former president of the Arkansas Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners Foundation. He owned and operated apartment complexes and headed the National Butane Company and National Builders Supply.

In addition to his wife, Winn is survived by a son, Allen, and a daughter, Dr. Sandra Burchett.