Top WV sire Fiber Sonde passes
Was the sire of two millionaires
Frank Vespe
September 28, 2026
Top West Virginia sire Fiber Sonde has died, owner Cynthia McKee announced. He was 21.
An unraced son of Unbridled’s Song out of the stakes-winning Storm Cat mare Silken Cat, Fiber Sonde was purchased for just $8,000 by McKee – then Cynthia O’Bannon – and stood throughout his career at her and late husband John McKee’s Beau Ridge Farm.
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He was West Virginia’s leading sire for six consecutive years, from 2018 through 2023, before being dethroned the last two years by Juba. At the time of his death, he is once again the state’s leading sire with nearly $1.4 million in progeny earnings, about $200,000 ahead of Golden Years.
At the time of his passing he ranks as West Virginia’s fourth-leading sire of all time by progeny earnings, having generated $26.5 million to date. His top earner was the millionaire graded stakes-placed Muad’dib, and he also was the sire of another millionaire in the graded stakes winner Runnin’toluvya, who won the Grade 2 Charles Town Classic in 2019.
Fiber Sonde had extraordinary success when crossed with Indian Charlie mares. The most prominent example of that are the four stars that have resulted from his matings with Holy Pow Wow: Muad’dib, graded stakes winner Late Night Pow Wow, 15-time winner Overnight Pow Wow, and 18-time winner Duncan Idaho. The latter two both are expected to compete in the Oct. 10 West Virginia Breeders Classics races.
He also sired a pair of classy runners out of a different Indian Charlie mare, Ghost Canyon. Those were the multiple stakes winners Hidden Canyon and Bullets Fever, who retired with a spotless 8-for-8 ledger.
Fiber Sonde also sired Penguin Power, who went on to win a record-setting five West Virginia Breeders Classics races.
Yet for all that success, Fiber Sonde’s stud fee never rose above $1,000.
“He’s been a blessing for us,” John McKee said in 2021. “Every year for probably the last 10 years he’s been able to cover 75-80 mares. One year he had 94. He’s been the main reason we have been doing well the last 10 years. I breed most of my mares to him, although most of them not every year. People always ask me when I am going to raise his stud fee, but there’s no real reason to do that.”
Cynthia McKee posted the following on Facebook:
“With deepest regret Beau Ridge Farm announces the passing of Fiber Sonde my heart is not broken it’s shattered. The greatest gift that God entrusted us with he has taken home.”
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