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Arthur Hancock III died on 18 September 2026 at Stone Farm, his home near Paris, Kentucky. He was 83. His son, Arthur Hancock IV, shared the news the next day.
If you follow horse racing, you know the name. He bred three Kentucky Derby winners. He is in the Racing Hall of Fame. He bred Sunday Silence, one of the most important racehorses of the last fifty years.
But the story of his life does not start with a win. It starts with a door that closed on him, and a colt nobody would pay for.
Who Was Arthur Hancock III?
Arthur Hancock III was born into one of the most famous families in horse breeding. His grandfather founded Claiborne Farm in Kentucky. His father, Arthur “Bull” Hancock Jr., built it into what BloodHorse calls America’s most influential breeding operation.
He was not only a horseman. At Vanderbilt University he co-captained the swim team and won a conference title in the 100-yard freestyle. He also wrote country songs, and artists including Ray Price and Willie Nelson recorded them. One old friend joked that he might have made the Olympics if he had not spent so many nights playing music in Nashville bars.
So he had more than one gift. As it turned out, that was part of the problem.
If you have ever been told your life has to be one thing, and wondered what that one thing should be, this free video guide is for you. It is about finding meaning in the ordinary work of real life.
The Farm That Went to His Brother
Bull Hancock died in 1972. Arthur was the older son, and he had worked at Claiborne as assistant manager. Many people assumed the farm would pass to him.
It did not. Before he died, Bull had set up a small advisory committee to choose who would run Claiborne after him. It was made up of three of the biggest names in racing: Ogden Phipps, William Haggin Perry and Charles Kenney. They chose Arthur’s younger brother, Seth.
The public record does not give their reasons. What it does show is that Arthur disputed the choice, and then he left.
He leased 100 acres nearby and started over. He called it Stone Farm. Over the years it grew to about 2,300 acres, according to BloodHorse’s obituary. It produced close to 180 stakes winners.
That is a lot to build out of a “no.”
“That Was Daddy’s Life’s Dream”
In 1982, a horse bred at Stone Farm, Gato Del Sol, won the Kentucky Derby.
You might expect a man in Arthur’s position to say something about proving people wrong. He didn’t. He talked about his father.
“I had an out-of-body experience for the only time in my life… That was Daddy’s life’s dream, and it didn’t happen for him.”
Bull Hancock built the most influential breeding farm in America, but the Derby win he dreamed of never came. The son who didn’t get the farm won it for him, a decade after he was gone.
There is no bitterness in that sentence. Whatever he felt about 1972, the first thing he reached for on the best day of his working life was his dad.
If that kind of honor inside a hard family story sounds familiar, we looked at a similar love from a different angle in Howie Rose’s retirement, where a broadcaster walked away from a 40-year career for his wife.
Sunday Silence: The Horse Nobody Wanted
Then came the colt.
He was born in 1986. As a weanling he caught a virus that nearly killed him. When he grew, he was gangly, and one trainer described his legs as “coat hangers.”
Arthur took him to the Keeneland yearling sale to sell him. Nobody wanted him. According to UPI’s 1989 report, the bidding stalled, and Arthur bought his own horse back for $17,000.
He tried again in California the next year. Once more, the bidding stopped well short of what he was asking. He kept the horse again.
Then, on the drive back to Kentucky, the driver of the horse van had a fatal heart attack. The van flipped. The colt came out of the wreck with only minor injuries.
That colt was Sunday Silence. In 1989 he won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness. He beat his great rival Easy Goer in the Breeders’ Cup Classic and was named Horse of the Year.
Later he was sold to Japan, where he became the country’s foundation stallion. He was Japan’s leading sire thirteen times in a row.
After the Derby, Arthur told reporters: “It’s kind of eerie. It’s almost like destiny.” He also admitted he had only tried to sell because “this is a tough game” and he needed his money back.
So the passed-over son kept the passed-over horse. Not out of vision. Because nobody would buy it. And that turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to either of them.
“You Couldn’t Serve Two Masters”
There is one line in Arthur’s story that is easy to read past.
Talking to Keeneland Magazine about the music, he explained why his father had never been keen on it: “Daddy believed you couldn’t serve two masters.” Racing or songwriting. One or the other. Pick.
Here is the funny thing. Arthur served both, all his life. He bred Derby winners, and he kept writing songs. Next month he will be inducted, after his death, into the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame. On that point, the son was right and the father was wrong. Horses and music could share one life.
But the phrase itself is much older than horse racing. It comes from the Sermon on the Mount. And in its first form, the two masters were not a guitar and a stable. They were God and money.
That changes the question. It was never about how many interests you can hold at once. People can love many things. The old line is about the one thing that sits on the throne of a life and gives the orders. Everyone serves something. The only real choice is what.
One Reputation
You can see which master Arthur Hancock tried to answer to by the way he talked at the end.
In his later years he became a well-known voice in his sport for racing horses without drugs. The Paulick Report’s obituary called him a drug-free racing advocate. His wife, Staci, organized a coalition called the Water, Hay, Oats Alliance, which pushed for exactly that. In a business where money has a strong pull, that was not the easy side to stand on.
When he was inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame in 2025, his message to the industry was short:
“Work hard, be honest, and remember that you have one reputation and once it’s gone, it’s gone.”
And when another honor came his way in 2020, he refused to take the credit alone. “When you see a turtle on a fence post,” he said, “you know he didn’t get there by himself.” He thanked his clients, his staff and, most of all, his wife.
He worked his own land until he was 80. He leaves behind Staci and six children. His daughter Lynn is now vice president of Stone Farm.
His was a life that began with being passed over, and kept being handed things other people didn’t want: a hundred leased acres, a sickly colt nobody would buy. He made something good out of each one, and then spent his last years standing up for how he believed horses should be raced. If you are wondering what your own life is really built around, this free core values quiz is a quiet place to start.
Most of us will never breed a Derby winner. But everyone gets one reputation, and everyone serves something. Those two facts outlast any trophy.
Discussion Question
Was Bull Hancock right that you can’t serve two masters, or did his son prove you can build a life around more than one passion? Tell us what you think in the comments.
Share This
- Arthur Hancock III was passed over to run his family’s famous farm. He leased 100 acres, started over, and bred three Kentucky Derby winners. He has died at 83.
- Nobody would buy Sunday Silence. Arthur Hancock bought his own colt back for $17,000, and it went on to win the Kentucky Derby. Sometimes the thing nobody wanted is the thing you were meant to keep.
- “You have one reputation and once it’s gone, it’s gone.” That was the advice of Arthur Hancock III, horseman and songwriter, who has died at 83.
Questions People Ask
Who was Arthur Hancock III?
Arthur B. Hancock III was an American thoroughbred breeder, owner and songwriter who founded Stone Farm near Paris, Kentucky. He bred three Kentucky Derby winners, Gato Del Sol (1982), Sunday Silence (1989) and Fusaichi Pegasus (2000), and was inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame in 2025. He died on 18 September 2026 at the age of 83.
Why didn’t Arthur Hancock III take over Claiborne Farm?
When Arthur “Bull” Hancock Jr. died in 1972, a three-man advisory committee he had set up, made up of Ogden Phipps, William Haggin Perry and Charles Kenney, chose his younger son Seth Hancock to run Claiborne Farm instead of his older son Arthur Hancock III. Arthur disputed the decision and left to found his own operation, Stone Farm, starting on 100 leased acres.
Why did nobody want to buy Sunday Silence?
Sunday Silence was a gangly colt who had nearly died from a virus as a weanling, and buyers were not impressed by his build. At the Keeneland yearling sale, bidding stalled and breeder Arthur Hancock III bought him back for $17,000. A later sale in California also failed to meet his asking price. Sunday Silence went on to win the 1989 Kentucky Derby and Preakness and became Japan’s leading sire thirteen times.
What does “no one can serve two masters” mean?
“No one can serve two masters” is a saying from the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospels, where Jesus says a person cannot serve both God and money. It is often used today to mean that a person cannot fully commit to two competing jobs or loyalties. In its original setting, the point is less about having several interests and more about what ultimately rules a person’s life and decisions.
