Background
Hancock was born on January 24, 1910 to Arthur B. Hancock and Nancy, née Clay, at Claiborne Farm.
Hancock was born on January 24, 1910 to Arthur B. Hancock and Nancy, née Clay, at Claiborne Farm.
He was educated at two prep schools: Saint Mark"s School in Massachusetts and Woodberry Forest School in Virginia. He graduated from Princeton University in 1933.
He acquired European horses to breed in the United States, in particular Nasrullah and Princequillo, and gained great standing in the racing world as a result. During World World War II, served as a major in the United States Army Air Forces. From the age of six, began to learn the horse business from his father, sweeping sheds and shaking empty stalls.
In 1957, inherited Claiborne, a 2,873 acre stud farm near Paris, Kentucky, and concentrated on breeding major winners and importing European stallions.
During his career at stud, Nasrullah sired 98 stakes winners in all and was the leading sire in North America five times. also imported Princequillo, who sired Secretariat"s dam, Somethingroyal, and was the leading sire twice and leading broodmare sire in North America eight times. In addition, bred and stood Round Table, syndicated Nijinsky II, and managed the career of Buckpasser. had plans for Sham, whom he called "my great horse", but he died when the horse was two.
In order to keep the breeding stock, the estate sold all the racing stock, and Sham went to Sigmund Sommer, who raced the horse against Secretariat during the Triple Crown in 1973. Bulletin served as President of the Thoroughbred Club of America in 1947-1948.
In 1999, the Racing Post named him at number 12 in their list of 100 Makers of 20th century horse racing.
In August 1972, fell ill while hunting in Scotland. He died a few weeks later of pancreatic cancer at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. He was buried in the Paris Cemetery.
His widow established the A. B. Junior.
Memorial Laboratory for Cancer Research at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. lieutenant was said of him, by racing journalist Peter Willett, "Bulletin was the biggest man, physically speaking, in the thoroughbred industry of his day, and towered above most of his contemporaries in professional ability and the dominance of his personality.".