Flying Penske

20 Sept 1997 - 25 Feb 2007

It was reported by owner Hal Gill that Flying Penske passed away unexpectedly of an apparent heart attack. He would have been 10 in September.

Flying Penske set the 660 yard track record at the Woodlands and made the final of the 2000 Hollywood World Classic where he encountered traffic and ran fourth as the betting favorite. He currently stands fifth in the U.S. Sire Standings. He is the sire of 2005 All America Nimby TP Jan, 2002 Hollywood World Classic winner Flying Earnhardt, and Texas Gold, the fastest stayer in Australia in many years.

Flying Penske continues a long tradition that traces up his sireline to the great Tell You Why*. His sire Oshkosh Racey was captain of the 1988 All America team and won the Rural Rube Award as the nation’s best sprinter. He won the 1988 Mile High Sprint Countdown by 14 lengths, the Strohs All-American Invitational at Mile High, and the Tampa Sprint and Distance Classics. He went on to a fine career at stud, finishing in the top-five in the Sire Standings from 1994 through 1998, peaking in second position in 1997. He was enshrined in the Hall of Fame in 2001. Racey’s sire, Unruly, was one of the finest greyhounds to ever grace a track. He was the 1981 Flashy Sir Award winner, won the Timberline at Denver’s Mile High, two editions of the $120,000 Hollywoodian, and ran second in the Rhode Island Derby, the Biscayne Derby; and the Flagler International. He had 83 career wins, mostly in stakes races, and $190,000 in career earnings. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1988.

Penske’s damline descends from the superb brood Dia’s Stormy Day, dam of the outstanding sprinters Rooster’s Spur and Grit N Steel. She exerts her biggest influence on American pedigrees through Oswald Cobblepot, but her daughters by All American brothers Rooster Cogburn and Highway Robber continue to breed on as well. Two Brett Lee sensations, Dragon Fire and Super Lee trace directly back to Dia’s Stormy Day.

Successful offspring of Flying Penske would be too long to list. In addition to Nimby TP Jan, Flying Earnhardt and Texas Gold, he produced 2005 American Derby winner Inspecda Deck, 2005 Bluffs Run Survivor Series champ Thisbee’s Gotyou, Bluffs Run Spring Futurity winner I’m Already Gone, 2004 Southland Juvenile winner and track champion Dave The Dog, 2003 Southland Razorback champ Happy Ruckus, 2006 Tampa Derby winner Turbo Penske, 2006 Orange Park track champion Kay V Tatoo Tony, and many, many others. In the 2007 Derby Lane Million final, two of the pups are his and he is the damsire of another.

The final chapters of the Flying Penske story remain to be written. Despite the fact that he has 2200 pups registered through 2004, the bulk of his breedings occurred in 2005 and 2006 which should ensure even more Penske champions for the foreseeable future.