Claiborne Farm has much to celebrate in 2010 as it rings in its 100th year of great Thoroughbred breeding and racing. Located in Paris, Kentucky, Claiborne is the home and burial place of a “Who’s Who” of renowned horses such as 1973 Triple Crown winner Secretariat, Bold Ruler, Buckpasser, Nijinsky, and Unbridled. The Hancock family that founded and owns the farm plans to go about business as usual in its second century. Writes Patti Nickell in Horse Lover’s Guide to Kentucky:

“Since Claiborne’s founding in 1910, the Hancock family has presided over the 3,500 beautifully landscaped acres stretching from its massive stone gates to the town of Paris nearly a mile and a half away. Two of the farm’s top stallions Ñ 1957 Derby contenders Bold Ruler and Round Table Ñ were born here on the same day, and Secretariat, sired by Claiborne stallion Bold Ruler and later syndicated for $6.1 million, set a record time of just under two minutes in racing to victory in the 1973 Kentucky Derby, before going on to win the Preakness and Belmont.
Although always glamorous (Queen Elizabeth II famously dined here on a visit to the state), the family has not been without drama.
The current owner, Seth Hancock, got the nod to run the farm following his father’s death in 1972 only after the farm’s trustees had passed over his older brother, Arthur, for the position because they thought he lacked his younger brother’s “seriousness” and astute judgment of horse flesh. Stung, Arthur sold his share of the farm and bought another one, Stone Farm, four miles down the road, where his “lack of seriousness” has been anything but apparent. He owned and bred 1982 Kentucky Derby winner Gato Del Sol and in partnership bred 2000 Derby winner Fusaichi Pegasus. In 1989, one of his horses, Sunday Silence, won the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Claiborne won its own Kentucky Derby in 1984 with the homebred Swale, who also won the Belmont Stakes before collapsing after a morning bath and dying