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 8

We’ve reached the final weekend of the 2023 Belmont Park meet and the New York racetrack is blowing out its remaining stakes on Saturday’s next-to-last race day of the meet with a total of four graded stakes, including a pair of turf Grade 1s for 3-year-olds, the $500,000 Fasig-Tipton Belmont Oaks Invitational Stakes and the $750,000 Belmont Derby Invitational Stakes. While exciting horses can be found up and down the Saturday program at Belmont, including the sensational undefeated Maple Leaf Mel in the Grade 3 Victory Ride Stakes sprint race for 3-year-old fillies, the Belmont Oaks and Derby stand out as the best betting races on the card with fields worthy of the Grade 1 status of the races. This Saturday, let’s take a closer look at the final pair of Grade 1 races to be run at Belmont this season.

Belmont Park, Race 8, $500,000 Belmont Oaks Invitational, 4:43 p.m. ET

The Belmont Oaks Invitational drew a field of nine 3-year-old fillies, including an interesting pair of foreign invaders - #3 Speirling Beag and #9 Aspen Grove – who are both Group 3 winners in Ireland. The race goes at 1 ¼ miles on Belmont’s inner turf, which will be the longest distance most of this field has run so far, and the American contingent in this race seems to have more upside. The horse in the field with perhaps the most to gain from this extended distance is #2 Strikingly Spun, a 15-1 longshot on the morning line who just ran one of this field’s best speed figures last time out when stretched out to an even greater distance of 1 3/8 miles in a close second-place finish. That was a slow early, fast late race where Strikingly Spun ran her last three furlongs in about 35 seconds, which bodes well for her today. She shouldn’t be overlooked at big odds with Jose Ortiz back aboard. The morning-line favorite in the race is #1 Mission of Joy, who also shouldn’t have any trouble navigating 1 ¼ miles based on her good-looking win last time out in the Grade 3 Regret Stakes at Churchill Downs with the field’s highest speed figure. Mission of Joy is already a four-time winner in six career races so far and her best may still be ahead of her at these kinds of extended distances. Finally, no talk of handicapping a field like this would be complete without mentioning the Chad Brown-trained runners in the race, #5 Prerequisite and #7 Aspray, who are both obvious contenders. Prerequisite gets Irad Ortiz Jr., exits a win in the local prep for this in the Grade 2 Wonder Again Stakes, and may have a pace advantage vs. this field if no one challenges her for the lead. Aspray beat a good field last time out at Pimlico in the $100,000 Hilltop Stakes to earn a well-deserved chance in this race.

The Play: Go for the best odds and bet to win on #2 Strikingly Spun (15-1). Then play Strikingly Spun in exacta and trifecta boxes along with #1 Mission of Joy (2-1). and #5 Prerequisite (5-1)

Belmont Park, Race 10, $750,000 Belmont Derby Invitational, 5:49 p.m. ET

Webslinger (Candace Chavez/Eclipse Sportswire)

Saturday’s feature race is the Belmont Derby Invitational, which goes at 1 ¼ miles on the turf. The most exciting up-and-comer in the division this year so far has been #4 Webslinger, who scored a high-profile win on the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve undercard in the Grade 2 American Turf Stakes Presented by BMW, in which he came from behind to prevail by a nose. Since then, he added another turf stakes win in the $225,000 Audubon Stakes at 1 1/8 miles to remain in tip-top form. What made the Audubon win so impressive is that Webslinger had to win it from off the pace behind slow fractions that aided the front-runners. This field, on the other hand, appears contain ample pace, and that should set-up Webslinger for a third straight victory today. Another colt who will benefit from better pace in this race will be #6 Silver Knott, who settled for third in the local prep in the Grade 2 Pennine Ridge Stakes when he got no pace to run at from behind. A faster pace today should equal a better finish. The other horse in the field who has been right there so far with both Webslinger and Silver Knott in past races is #5 Far Bridge, who is a deep closer who clearly would also benefit from a hotly contested pace in this race after closing for second behind a crawling pace last time in the Pennine Ridge.

The Play:  Bet #4 Webslinger (9-2) to win and box him in the exactas and trifectas with #5 Far Bridge (4-1) and Silver Knott (6-1).