Wing Commander (horse)

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Wing Commander (1943-1969) was a world champion Saddlebred show horse and preeminent sire of the breed.

A chestnut colt foaled in 1943, Wing Commander was sired by "Anacacho Shamrock" and out of the mare "Flirtation Walk." Bred by Frances Dodge and owned by her Castleton Farm, in Lexington, Kentucky, he was trained and shown by Earl Teater, one of the leading saddle horse trainer-riders of his day.

Wing Commander first entered competition in 1946 as a five-gaited stallion and two years later at the Kentucky State Fair won the first of six straight five-gaited World's Grand Championships. Over eight years of competition in either the 3 or 5 gaited class, Wing Commander won 174 of the 176 events he entered.

Retired to stud at Castleton Farm, Wing Commander became one of the most important sires of champion saddle show horses. In 1969 at the age of twenty six, the horse died of colic and was buried in Castleton's horse cemetery.