Welcome to Noel Michaels’ Weekend Winners, the place to go for weekend best bets and spot plays from veteran handicapper and tournament-play pioneer Noel Michaels. Check back every week for a couple of highlighted selections designed to help you cash a few bets and make some money.

Noel's selections have been featured just about everywhere horse racing picks can be found, including in print in the Daily Racing Form, The HorsePlayer Magazine and American Turf Monthly, online at DRF.com, Twinspires.com and USRacing.com, from the paddock on-track at Arlington International Racecourse, and on the air on HRTV, TVG, NYC OTB Extra, NYRA's Talking Horses, and on broadcast TV on WAVE-3 Louisville, ABC KOLO-8 in Reno, Nevada, and channel 72 Long Island Cablevision.

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6 Beginner Betting Tools

1. Start simple with an easy guide for how to bet on horse racing.
2. Not sure what that word means? Horse racing terminology is a language of its own. Allow us translate for you.
3. What the heck is a speed figure? This beginner’s guide to speed figures has everything you need to know.
4. Betting on horse racing can be intimidating. Team ABR put together some Dos and Don’ts for the new fan getting started betting on racing.
5. We all make mistakes when it comes to betting on horse racing, here are eight lessons learned from experience.
6. Figure out how much each bet will cost in advance with our Gambling Calculator, presented by NYRA Bets.

Saturday, April 29

The spring season at Aqueduct has a week to go before New York racing make its much-anticipated move to Belmont Park. Most of the pieces are already in place with a roll-call of top jockeys and trainers converging on the Big Apple, and that star power is on full display at the Big A this Saturday with Irad Ortiz Jr., Jose Ortiz, Flavien Prat, Joel Rosario, and many more elite jockeys on hand to ride horses for the power stables of Chad Brown, Todd Pletcher, Christophe Clement, and many more in what will be a preview of what we can expect throughout the Belmont season. It’s Aqueduct’s seasonal last hurrah, let’s pick a couple of winners in Saturday. Best of luck.

Aqueduct, Race 2, $100,000 Memories of Silver Stakes, 1:52 p.m. ET

Aqueduct’s Saturday stakes feature goes as Race 2 on the card as they try to get it in before rain moves in in the afternoon. The Memories of Silver goes at one mile on the turf for 3-year-old fillies and has drawn a field of seven, plus three also-eligible entrants that would compete only if the race is moved to the main track. The big guns are well represented in this race with Christophe Clement entering his first-out maiden winner #5 Queen Picasso and Chad Brown entering two, with his first-out maiden winners #2 Lady Beth and #7 Royalty Interest. It certainly would not be a surprise to see any of those fillies win, but they all will receive heavy attention on the tote board. There are more experienced fillies in the field and one of them in particular, #6 Juniper’s Moon, looks worthy of a play. She has run well in all three of her turf outings so far for trainer Tony Dutrow, including a third-place finish last time out vs. a 12-horse field in the Grade 3 Florida Oaks at Tampa Bay Downs, where she led in the stretch and ended up losing by less than three lengths at 1 1/16 miles. A similar effort today at one mile should be good enough to do the trick. Let’s make it an “all Moon” exacta box along with #3 Hang the Moon, one of two two-time winners in this field who comes to town for trainer Michael Stidham off a pair of good turf outings at Fair Grounds this winter, including a big allowance win and a solid effort in a stakes last time out when beaten less than two lengths.

The Play: Bet #6 Juniper’s Moon (4-1) to win and play her in exacta boxes with #3 Hang the Moon (8-1).

Aqueduct, Race 8, $84,000 allowance, 5:06 p.m. ET

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Race 8 is a one-mile allowance race on the Big A main track that drew a nine-horse field featuring the 4-year-old debut of #2 Zandon, who was a veteran of five Grade 1 races last year, including a win in the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes and a third-place finish in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve. While Zandon clearly stands out on credentials, he will go off at very low odds on the tote board and could be vulnerable making his first start of 2023 off nearly a five-month layoff. Zandon’s glory races also all came as a closer at longer distances. Let’s take a shot and try to beat him today. #6 Galt was highly thought of enough last year as a 3-year-old to have been entered in both the Grade 3 Holy Bull Stakes and the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby and was not embarrassed in either race. The last time he raced in New York was two races ago last June at Belmont, where he won on a muddy track. Rain is in the forecast as the afternoon progresses on Saturday. Unlike Zandon, he’s got a return prep race under his belt and now makes his second start off the layoff with a good chance at posting the upset. #3 High Connection makes his 3-year-old bow in this spot from the barn of trainer Todd Pletcher with Irad Ortiz Jr. aboard. He also has a layoff to deal with, but he was good enough last year as a 3-year old to win the Los Alamitos Derby and then just missed by a nose in the Shared Belief Stakes at Del Mar. He’s dangerous if ready.

The Play:  Bet #6 Galt (8-1) to win and use him in trifecta boxes along with #2 Zandon (4-5), and #3 High Connection (9-2).