During a month of genuine highs and lows, trainer Cynthia McKee is hoping that the current emotional roller coaster she is riding will reach its zenith on West Virginia Breeders Classics night. 

Two of her trainees, Direct the Cat and No Change, seek wins for the second straight year, and another, Overnight Pow Wow, looks to enhance her budding reputation.

In the weeks leading up to the July 27 Sylvia Bishop Memorial for three-year-old fillies, McKee appeared to be holding a pair of aces in Direct the Cat, heroine of last fall’s WVBC Triple Crown Nutrition Stakes, and Overnight Pow Wow, the full-sister to multiple graded stakes winner Late Night Pow Wow. 

The talented tandem appeared destined to run one-two in that event. Those McKee trainees did, in fact, run one-two in the Bishop but in not in the order most expected as Overnight Pow Wow forged a 12-1 upset while 1-9 favorite Direct the Cat settled for second.

In the weeks since their meeting in the Bishop, Overnight Pow Wow and Direct the Cat have also traveled varying paths. Overnight Pow Wow would next finish a game fourth in the Grade 2, $750,000 Charles Town Oaks, a race her full-sister had won six years earlier. Direct the Cat, meanwhile, has been nursing a cut on her right hind leg. 

With West Virginia Breeders Classics Night fast approaching, McKee noted that the two fillies would continue along separate paths on the October 12 card.

“At this point I’m going to nominate Overnight Pow Wow for the Cavada and Direct the Cat for the three-year-old filly race [WV Division of Tourism],” McKee said. “Overnight Pow Wow ran an unbelievable race in the Charles Town Oaks, and she’s just a lot fitter now. That race is going to come up tough, so I didn’t want to put them both in there, especially with Direct the Cat coming off a little break. Overnight came out of the Oaks really well and she’s doing good.”

Direct the Cat reappeared on the work tab August 31, breezing three furlongs, and followed that up with a five-furlong move September 9 in 1:01 ⅗. 

“Direct the Cat had that cut issue with her hind leg and it just seemed like it took forever to get it right,” McKee noted. “But she worked the other day and did it easily.”

Both Direct the Cat and Overnight Pow Wow are McKee homebreds. They were bred by Cynthia’s late husband John McKee and both race for her Beau Ridge Farm LLC operation.

Direct the Cat, last year’s champion West Virginia-bred two-year-old filly, won her first two starts this year in sharp fashion before settling second to her stablemate in the Sylvia Bishop. She has won six of nine starts and nearly $200,000 along the way.

Overnight Pow Wow, unraced at age two, has five wins and roughly $190,000 banked from eight tries this season. The Bishop score was her second stakes victory following a win in the 4 ½-furlong Its Binn Too Long April 27.

“Overnight tried so hard in the Oaks and she was basically a head from being second or third and earning graded stakes-placed status,” McKee said. “The Cavada is going to come up tough with those older fillies or mares in there but she’s earned the right to be in there. Next year, if they both are doing well, I would like to see them both try open stakes and graded stakes somewhere. They were both invited to the [Grade I] Cotillion at Parx, but that race is going to come up really tough, and there was no way I was going up there.”

Direct the Cat is not McKee’s only 2023 WVBC champion slated to return in 2024. McKee will also look to saddle No Change in seven-furlong Onion Juice BC, an event he won last year. A six-year-old son of Fiber Sonde, No Change has only one win in four seasonal tries but boasts a solid 16-7-5 slate and over $500,000 banked from 38 career outings and will look to rebound from a pair of tough recent starts to regain his winning ways in the Onion Juice.

“He lost a shoe in the stall before his last race and had to get a new one nailed in just before the [Aug. 23 Frank Gall Memorial],” McKee said. “They were only able to get two nails in that shoe, so he never really got comfortable. Then in the [April 20 Confucius Say] he clipped heels and almost went down when [jockey] Marshall] Mendez went down. He’s just had nothing but bad luck this year.”

In between those two disappointments, No Change registered his only win of the season in an allowance race June 27.

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