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, July 22

TVG.com Haskell Stakes Day at Monmouth Park is annually one of the biggest and best race days of the summer, and this year is no exception as the track gets ready to host a 14-race program this Saturday featuring five graded stakes headlined by the running of the $1 million, Grade 1  Haskell for 3-year-olds. Monmouth Park’s other Grade 1 event, the $600,000 United Nations Stakes, is also on the card and will help make for an exciting afternoon of racing and wagering from the Jersey shore. Here are some picks on the biggest races of the Monmouth Park summer meet with recommended plays for both the Haskell and the United Nations. Best of luck and enjoy the day.

Monmouth Park, Race 11, $600,000 United Nations Stakes, post time 5:06 p.m. ET

The United Nations Stakes drew a field of 10 contenders and goes at 1 3/8 miles around three turns on the Monmouth Park turf course. The morning-line favorite, the veteran #9 Red Knight, is in the midst of perhaps the best year of his career with wins already in the Grade 3 William L. McKnight Stakes Presented by Davidoff Cigars and in the Grade 1 Man O’ War Stakes where he rallied to an impressive win two races ago at the distance of the United Nations. His loss last time came at a distance too short for him at 1 ¼ miles, but he’s a reliable performer at the 1 ½-mile and 1 3/8-mile distances and seems to have found a very beatable field here today for him to annex his second Grade 1 of the season. I am not convinced of the Grade 1 quality of any of the horses in here exiting the Grade 3 Louisville Stakes – #1 Therapist, #5 Limited Liability, #7 Yamato, and #8 Foreign Relations – and I believe #6 Planetario, who had to run 1 ¾ miles for his win in the San Juan Capistrano Stakes last time, will be overbet. The leaves #3 Catnip as the best of the alternatives in the exactas. Catnip gets a distance and class text today, but there’s no doubt he’s gotten good this season with three straight wins including 2-for-2 over the Monmouth Park grass course.

The Play: Bet to win on #9 Red Knight (5-2), and play him in exacta boxes along with #3 Catnip (4-1)

Monmouth Park, Race 12, $1,000,000 TVG.com Haskell Stakes, post time 5:45 p.m. ET

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The Haskell is the centerpiece race of the entire Monmouth Park season and this year it has drawn an eight-horse field of 3-year-olds set to go 1 1/8 miles on the main track. The headline attraction and horse to beat will be Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve winner #4 Mage, who was last seen running a disappointing third in the Preakness Stakes on May 20. He’ll be looking for a rebound win in the Haskell, while also pointing ahead to the summer’s main goal which will be in the Runhappy Travers Stakes, aka the “Mid-Summer Derby” Aug. 26 at Saratoga. At a low price in this spot and with a bigger goal ahead of him in his next race, Mage seems like a solid bet-against in the Haskell, especially since his closing running style is generally not a good fit at Monmouth Park, a track which plays more favorably to horses with enough speed or tactical speed to stay on or close to the pace. The wrong running style might also hinder the chances of Belmont Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets third-place finisher #5 Tapit Trice, a long-striding horse that is even more void of early speed than Mage. A couple of California-based horses invade this race that do have early speed, and these horses seem to be the way to go for bettors looking to land on a Haskell exacta. Trainer Bob Baffert has a dominant history in the Haskell with a record nine wins, and he cannot be ignored with his #8 Arabian Knight despite the fact that the horse enters this race off a six-month layoff since last being seen romping in Oaklawn Park’s Grade 3 Southwest Stakes on Jan. 28. Arabian Knight has the speed to lead and might not even look back, just as was the case in this year’s Preakness Stakes where Baffert’s National Treasure stole the race going gate-to-wire. The other West Coast invader to consider in this race is #1 Geaux Rocket Ride trained by Hall of Famer Richard Mandella. Geaux Rocket Ride was highly thought of this winter when he finished second to Practical Move in the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes in only his second career race. He’s had a layoff since then, but unlike Arabian Knight, Geaux Rocket Ride has already gotten a return race under his belt, which he won in style in the $100,000 Affirmed Stakes at Santa Anita Park on June 4. He has the favorable tactical speed to stay close to the pace on the Monmouth main track, but he can rate and doesn’t need the lead to win.

The Play:  Bet #1 Geaux Rocket Ride (9-2) to win and play an exacta box along with #8 Arabian Knight (5-2).