Owner-trainer-breeder Cynthia McKee threw down her cards Saturday night, and it turned out she was holding a royal flush.

McKee, widow of longtime local trainer John McKee, won four races during Saturday’s West Virginia Breeders Classics at Charles Town Races and capped the evening with Overnight Pow Wow’s front-running score in the $125,000 Cavada, the night’s filly-and-mare feature.

McKee said she visited her late husband’s grave in the morning and had a request.

“I told him today, I said, ‘I got them to the head of the lane, honey. You’ve got to send them from there,’” she said, biting back the emotions of the moment. “By God, he did it.”

Overnight Pow Wow’s victory came at the expense of Hessica, whose rally fell a length-and-a-half short, and denied that runner an unprecedented third Cavada victory.

Overnight Pow Wow, by Fiber Sonde, is a sibling to multiple graded stakes winner Late Night Pow Wow, as well as near-millionaire Muad’dib and this evening’s Dash for Cash winner Duncan Idaho, The other three runners all raced in someone else’s colors.

“I wanted to keep her,” McKee remembered. “John always wanted to sell them. I said, ‘No, honey, I want you to have one good horse.”

John McKee passed away before Overnight Pow Wow made the races, which she did in February 2024. She’s certainly made up for lost time, though, winning, now, seven of 10 starts. The Cavada win was her third stakes triumph and pushed her career bankroll to nearly $270,000.

Under regular pilot Reshawn Latchman grabbed the race in the opening jumps and never let go. She threw down testing early fractions of 22.68 seconds for the quarter and 46.89 for the half. Barbers Point was her closest pursuer at the first call, Lucylou Who at the second. Neither would be anywhere close at the end.

“She broke really sharp tonight. I think she was a length clear of the field after the first jump,” Latchman said. “She’s got plenty of natural early speed and I just let the one [Barbers Point] sit just off of me. When I asked her to run on the far turn she still had plenty left.”

Hessica, last early, picked her way through the field to make a late run. But she was unable to close the gap quickly enough to threaten the winner. Running time for the seven furlongs on a fast main track was 1:26.88.

A three-year-old, Overnight Pow Wow has regularly faced older runners in allowance company. But tonight was her first foray into older stakes company, and she passed the test with flying colors.

“It’s tough for three-year-olds to beat older horses,” Latchman said. “But she definitely held her own tonight in there. That was a good group of older fillies and she was able to beat them.”

Latchman won three races on WVBC night, all for McKee. He also won aboard Russell Road upsetter Catch the Humor and comebacking Direct the Cat, who made short work of her sophomore rivals in the WV Lottery, winning by nine lengths in 1:25.55 – a full second faster than her stablemate managed it in the Cavada.

McKee’s fourth winner of the evening was No Change, who wore down pacesetter Teachintherelease to win the Onion Juice by a length. The Fiber Sonde gelding wsa ridden to victory by Marshall Mendez.

For McKee, who gave credit to her help, the Cavada win put the finishing touches on an incredible evening.

“This is a crazy night,” she said. “I’ll probably never have another one like it in my life. But I’m loving it now.”

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