Stakes winners Great Spirit, Stryda, and Overnight Pow Wow will square off in Saturday evening’s $75,000 Fancy Buckles Stakes at Charles Town Races, where they’ll be joined by the talented Maggie’s Girl, beaten favorite in a stake last out.

The 4 ½-furlong test for West Virginia-bred fillies and mares is carded as the seventh on an eight-race program with an estimated off time of 10:02 p.m.

Great Spirit, the half-sister to the late dash specialist Dr. Feelgood, who went 10-for-10 at this short sprint distance, is 3-1 on the morning line and enters this contest as the event’s defending champ. Trained by Crystal Pickett for owner-breeder Jill Daniel, Great Spirit, by Great Notion, has won four of eight starts at the trip and five of nine overall.

Her wins include stakes victories in this event and also last year’s seven-furlong Sylvia Bishop Memorial. In her last two starts of ’23, though, Great Spirit was missing some of her early zip and ended up finishing third in both the Autumn Stakes and the Blue and Gold, on West Virginia Breeders Classics night.

She hasn’t raced since that last named race but is showing three works in preparation for her return. Two of those were bullet four-furlong moves, most recently a blazing 45 4/5-second move from the gate May 24 that was the fastest of 18. The next fastest horse that morning went in 47 seconds flat.

Orlando Bocachica has the mount, and Great Spirit will leave from the 10-hole.

Jill Daniel is also represented as the breeder of Stryda (4-1), also by Great Notion. The four-year-old filly, also inactive since the Blue and Gold last fall, has won six of 12 career starts and was second in this event a year ago. She scored her biggest win three starts later when she won the Autumn by just over two lengths, but she stopped badly after pressing the pace in the Blue and Gold and finished sixth as the favorite.

Stryda is trained by Jamey Johnson for FTF Racing LLC. Antonio Lopez, who has ridden her to two wins and a second from four starts, has the mount.

Overnight Pow Wow (6-1) won the Its Binn Too Long Stakes last time out, pressing the pace before drawing off to win by nearly two lengths for her second win in three career starts. Bred by the late John McKee, she is a full sister to multiple graded winner Late Night Pow Wow and near-millionaire Muad’dib.

She is trained by Cynthia McKee for her own Beau Ridge Farm LLC and will have regular pilot Reshawn Latchman up.

Fancy Buckles, the race’s namesake, was a Tim Grams trainee who won four stakes at Charles Town in the 2000s, and Grams is represented here by morning line favorite Maggie’s Girl (8-5), a homebred for Grams and his wife Judy. Maggie’s Girl, the beaten favorite last out in the seven-furlong Original Gold, is 3-for-4 at this distance and 7-for-10 overall.

Her one defeat at the distance, though, came in last August’s Autumn when second behind Stryda. Larry Reynolds, who also rode Fancy Buckles, has the mount.

Cruz in the Castle (50-1), Yolo Charlotte (15-1), Full Moon Lover (8-1), Cherokee Castle (30-1), Cedar’s Wish (20-1), and Coach Rube (20-1) complete the main body of the race, while Crafty Windsor Cat (30-1), Alpine Moon (20-1), and Worth a Peek (20-1) are also eligible. Notably, Coach Rube, who is trained by Donald Blankenship and will be ridden by Marshall Mendez, posted a shocking 38-1 upset in last fall’s Blue and Gold.

CHECK OUT THE LATEST OFF TO THE RACES RADIO!