Inside Track: September 6-7

A look at some of the top highlights from the past weekend of racing at Woodbine.

Fit For a Crown

Under a textbook ride from Rafael Hernandez, Aristella successfully rallied to capture the $250,000 Wonder Where Stakes, the third jewel in the Canadian Triple Tiara, Saturday at Woodbine.

The bay daughter of More Than Ready–Back to Love showed great poise before initiating a strong push for home to steer clear of the competition by 1 ¼ lengths.

Trained by multiple graded stakes winning conditioner Rachel Halden and bred by Peter A. Berglar Racing Interests, LLC & Anderson Farms (Ontario), Aristella paid $17.80 at 7-1.

Scary Good

Haunted Dream’s (IRE) first start on North American soil was one to remember, as the 6-year-old grey delivered a track-record triumph in Saturday’s $150,000 HPIbet Singspiel Stakes (GT3), run over 1 3/8 miles on Woodbine’s inner turf course.

No stranger to competition (38 starts coming in), Haunted Dream (IRE) looked more than comfortable away from home, speeding around the turf in 2:15.40 for the 1 ½-length victory.

The record-setting effort also represented a clean sweep of Saturday’s two stakes events for rider Rafael Hernandez, who won the Wonder Where in race four.

Haunted Dream paid $4.80.

‘I Do’

After paying her dues with a second and two thirds and over her last trio of starts, Shotgun Wedding proved a deserving winner in Sunday’s third at Woodbine.

Working out of post six with rider Keveh Nicholls aboard, the 3-year-old Mendelssohn filly out of Speightstown mare Reluctant Bride took the lead at the sixteenth pole and capped off the impressive rally by edging out 8-5 choice Promising by a half-length.

Bred by Deron Pearson & Patrick L Biacone LLC, and trained by Jamie Begg, Shotgun Wedding’s first tally of 2025 paid $6.50.

Stay tuned

Live racing continues on Thursday. First post is 5:30 p.m. ET