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 SatuTalking 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.

The biggest race day of the best race meet of the year is finally here as Saratoga hosts DraftKings Travers Stakes Day this Saturday. The Travers program is everything you would hope for as a horseplayer and handicapper and racing fan with 14 races on the card including five Grade 1 stakes. For this weekend’s winners, let’s focus our attention on two of Saratoga’s Grade 1 Saturday stakes – the H. Allen Jerkens Memorial Stakes, and of course the big one, the 155^th running of the DraftKings Travers. These two events will be the pinnacle of a star-studded Saturday of racing and wagering at Saratoga. Enjoy the races and best of luck.

Saratoga Race Course, Race 12, $500,000 H. Allen Jerkens Memorial Stakes, post time 5:30 p.m. ET

The H. Allen Jerkens for 3-year-olds sprinting seven furlongs is always one of the premier races of the Saratoga season and this year is certainly no exception. The race has drawn a stellar 11-horse field and the thing that makes this race a monumental challenge for handicappers is that it features fast horses from all over the country. It will be a face-off between horses both stretching out from six furlongs and horses that will be cutting back in distance after competing in longer races. When faced with this kind of choice in this race, history tells us the sprinters or one-turn horses will have the advantage. This is not a knock against horses like #3 Domestic Product or #6 Timberlake, other than to say this will be a tough spot for them to win. New York’s other Grade 1 nearly-equivalent spot is the Grade 1 Woody Stephens Stakes Presented by Mohegan Sun back in June, which this year was run at Saratoga. That race is a good place to look for the runners that should be the horses to beat in the Jerkens Memorial.

The Woody Stephens was won by the juggernaut in the division so far, #8 Book’em Danno, who also has won stakes at Tampa Bay Downs and Monmouth Park and just missed by a head when finishing second in the one mile $1.5 million Saudi Derby this season. He has shown no weaknesses yet against this caliber of horses and the seven-furlong distance hits him right between the eyes. The main threat to Book’em Danno on Saturday is likely to come from a horse he’s already beaten that is seeking revenge, #5 Prince of Monaco, who ships across the country again for trainer Bob Baffert after settling for second by a half-length in the Woody Stephens. Prince of Monaco has tactical speed but basically lost all chance when completely wiped out at the start in the Woody Stephens. He then rallied from too far back to lose despite a gallant effort and can definitely turn the tables given a fair start. Finally, the potential upsetter to watch out for is the lightly-raced #2 Speak Easy for trainer Todd Pletcher, who is 2-for-2 in his career including a highly-touted January maiden win at Gulfstream Park and a workmanlike victory last time in his return from a layoff in what looked like a non-fully-revved-up prep race to get him ready for a big effort Saturday.

The Play: Bet big on #5 Prince of Monaco (4-1) to win and play him in three-way exacta and trifecta boxes with #2 Speak Easy (8-1), and #8 Book’em Danno (7-2).

Saratoga Race Course, Race 13, $1,250,000 DraftKings Travers Stakes, post time 6:10 p.m. ET

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The Travers Stakes is the “Mid-Summer Derby” that has attracted many of the principals in the 3-year-old division among its eight-horse field. The results of this race will go a long way to determining some of the main contenders in this fall’s $7 million Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic. The 2024 Travers is also notable because it will feature the standout leading 3-year-old filly, #1 Thorpedo Anna, who looms a legitimate threat. Thorpedo Anna comes in on a four-race graded stakes-winning streak including three Grade 1 wins, with two of those victories, the DK Horse Acorn Stakes and the Coaching Club American Oaks, coming at Saratoga. The big question will be if she can repeat those types of efforts against colts and if she can be as effective at the longer Travers distance of 1 ¼ miles, especially while under the pace pressure she is likely to endure from multiple speed horses in the race. Those are big “what ifs.”

A safer bet in the Travers is to side with the top-rung 3-year-old males in the field like #7 Dornoch, who won both the Belmont Stakes and the NYRA Bets Haskell Stakes, #8 Fierceness, who won the Curlin Florida Derby and Saratoga’s Grade 2 Jim Dandy Stakes Presented by Mohegan Sun, and #2 Sierra Leone, who won the Grade 1 Toyota Blue Grass Stakes and just missed by a nose when second in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve. With these three to choose from as horses that can defeat Thorpedo Anna, the best options will be Dornoch, who has blossomed into this year’s top 3-year-old, and Sierra Leone, who is the closer of the group who will have a chance to benefit the most from the 1 ¼-mile distance with all the added pace Thorpedo Anna brings to the table. In this scenario, the horse to beat will be Sierra Leone, who will be flying in the stretch and finally able to get the best of a game Dornoch in a tight finish.

The Play:  Bet #2 Sierra Leone (7-2) to win and play him in exacta and trifecta boxes along with #1 Thorpedo Anna (3-1), and #7 Dornoch (5-2).