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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Six 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, Sept. 9

All good things must come to an end unfortunately, and it’s hard to believe we’ve already arrived at closing weekend for the 2023 Del Mar summer season. Del Mar had a great meet this year and put the icing on the cake nicely last weekend with the running of the FanDuel Racing Pacific Classic, won by Arabian Knight. With that now in the books, Del Mar now has one final weekend to go, led by an exciting 11-race program on Saturday with three stakes and plenty to bet on. Saturday’s featured race is the Grade 1 FanDuel Racing Del Mar Debutante to crown the top 2-year-old filly at the track in 2023. The top supporting stakes race on the card is the Grade 2 John C. Mabee Stakes for female turf horses. Enjoy Del Mar’s closing weekend, and best of luck.

Del Mar, Race 7, $250,000 John C. Mabee Stakes, post time 7:29 p.m. ET

A field of six fillies and mares will contest the Grade 2 John C. Mabee Stakes going 1 1/8 miles on the turf. The favorite in the race and horse to beat is #4 Closing Remarks, who has run just one recent race and it was a winning one in the Grade 2 Yellow Ribbon Handicap right here at Del Mar on Aug. 12 going 1 1/16 miles. The other top finishers from the Yellow Ribbon do not return to challenge Closing Remarks in this spot and the only other horse exiting that race to run in the Mabee is fifth-place finisher #6 Turnerloose, who was returning from a long layoff in the Yellow Ribbon and had to need that race. While Turnerloose certainly could improve, she still doesn’t seem to have the quality races in her past performances to challenge Closing Remarks, who also counts a Grade 2 win in the Royal Heroine Stakes at Santa Anita among the best races she’s run this year. She now owns two wins and a second in four career outings at Del Mar and will be tough to beat with a repeat of her last race. Plus, she’s eligible to improve in what will be her second race off a layoff based on the majority of her 2023 speed figures, which are better than what she ran in the Yellow Ribbon. The horse in the race with the best upset chance appears to be #1 Paris Peacock, who exits a fourth-place finish in a $100,000 Del Mar turf stakes going 1 3/8 miles last time where she led much of the way and only got passed in the later stages of a race that was probably too far for her. She set the pace under harassment while the leading pair extended seven lengths ahead of the rest of the field in a race that set up for closers.  Even fading late she finished just a length out of second and was beaten just 2 ¼ lengths. This 1 1/8-mile assignment today looks a lot better.

The Play: Bet to win on #1 Paris Peacock (8-1) and play her in an exacta box with favored #4 Closing Remarks (9-5).

Del Mar, Race 10, $300,000 FanDuel Racing Del Mar Debutante, post time 8:59 p.m. ET

Dreamfyre (BENOIT photo)

The Grade 1 Debutante drew a full field of 14 2-year-old fillies that are set to go seven furlongs on the Del Mar main track. Only one horse in the field has gone as far or farther than this distance so far in their young careers, and the winner will probably be the one that handles the distance the best. The horse to beat will be #7 Dreamfyre, who is already a stakes winner at the meet in the Grade 3 Sorrento Stakes Presented by Keeneland Sales, bringing her record to 2-for-2 to begin her career. She creamed the fields by 3 ½ lengths in both races so far at 5 ½ furlongs and six furlongs after setting a legit pace — opening quarter-mile in :21.77 and :21.74 — both times while showing no signs of stopping. While talking about the Sorrento, you also shouldn’t overlook that the runner-up from that race is back in today’s field with #4 Benedetta looking to turn the tables. Benedetta is trained by Simon Callaghan, who won this race in 2018 with Bellafina and in 2017 with Moonshine Memories, and he’s probably had it circled on Benedetta’s calendar for quite some time. Finally, one particularly interesting challenger in the field drawn toward the outside is #13 Laurent. She won at first asking in her 5 ½-furlong Del Mar debut with an eye-catching furious ninth-to-first rally after a slow break left her last at the start.  

The Play:  Bet #7 Dreamfyre (4-1) to win and play her in three-horse exacta and trifecta boxes along with #4 Bendetta (10-1) and #13 Laurent (6-1).