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.

Saturday, July 13

It’s opening weekend of the summer Saratoga Race Course meet and horseplayers and handicappers everywhere are excited for the season to begin. The first Saturday of the Saratoga season on July 13 will feature a 12-race card, including three stakes races. Two of those races, the Grade 1 Diana Stakes and the Grade 3 Sanford Stakes, will be the subject of this weekend’s winners. Let’s take a closer look at these featured races. If we can cash some bets this Saturday, we will be off to a good start at this great summer season of racing and wagering. Best of luck and enjoy the Spaaaaaa!

Saratoga, Race 10, $500,000 Diana Stakes, post time 5:43 p.m. ET

The first Grade 1 race of the Saratoga summer meet is the Diana Stakes, which has drawn a field of 10 fillies and mares set to run 1 1/8 miles on the turf (plus one main track-only entrant). The field includes five runners from perennial leading trainer Chad Brown, and that sounds like too much Brown to beat in this race that seems like a wheelhouse spot for his barn full of top turf females. Brown’s defending winner of this race, #6 Whitebeam, seems to be coming into this spot in a way similar to last year when she ran her best career race when beating an arguably better field that included the likes of In Italian and Fev Rover. Whitebeam should sit a perfect trip from a pace perspective along with #4 Didia, who both will be up pressing the probable pace-setting target #9 Evvie Jets with first run on all the closers. Whitebeam came up short against a couple of these same horses in her last two races but seems poised to turn the tables here in her third race of her current form cycle, the same pattern as last year when she won this race in a career-best effort. Speaking of Didia, she is the top non-Chad Brown hope in this race thanks to her ideal running style that is very similar to Whitebeam’s. Didia is in the midst of a tremendous season so far after having already won Grade 1 races in the TAA Pegasus World Cup Filly and Mare Turf Invitational Stakes in January and the New York Stakes presented by Rivers Casino right here on this turf course in her last race. Finally, if Whitebeam cannot come through for Brown, perhaps #10 Chili Flag can. Chili Flag is red-hot right now and comes into this race off three straight graded stakes wins, including the Grade 1 Just A Game Stakes right here at Saratoga during Belmont Stakes weekend last time out. She’ll need to stretch out to 1 1/8 miles here after specializing at a mile recently, but she’s a late runner who looks like a racehorse who can handle this much extra distance.

The Play: Bet to win on #6 Whitebeam (4-1) and play her in exacta and trifecta boxes along with #4 Didia (7-2) and #10 Chili Flag (9-2).

Saratoga, Race 11, $175,000 Sanford Stakes, post time 6:17 p.m. ET

Whitebeam winning 2023 Diana (Eclipse Sportswire)

The Grade 3 Sanford Stakes has drawn a field of eight 2-year-olds set to go six furlongs. The headline grabber in the field is #1 Mentee, based not only on his winning performance in his career debut last time out, but also due to the fact that he is a full-brother (same sire [father] and dam [mother]) to 2023 champion 2-year-old male Fierceness. Mentee looked great in his debut win, but there is just too much buzz around this horse to be able to get a fair price on him at the betting windows as evidenced by his 6-5 morning-line odds. Plus, he faded in deep stretch at five furlongs in his maiden win and ended up winning by only a nose. Today, he’ll need to stretch out an extra eighth of a mile against good horses, so therefore he seems like a better horse to use underneath instead of in your win bets. The horse in the race with the best upset chance is #6 Studlydoright, who is already 2-for-2 in his career, including a stakes win last time in the $150,000 Tremont Stakes where he made an eye-catching rally to win easily at 5 ½ furlongs. Today’s six furlongs figures to be even better for him and, with a clean start, it’s possible he won’t have to come from too far off the pace on Saturday. The other possibility in this field will be #8 Mo Plex, with Irad Ortiz Jr. aboard, who could be one of the main pace rivals to Mentee. With so much buzz surrounding Mentee, you shouldn’t overlook the excellent 10-length debut win from Mo Plex last time after surviving an extended duel for the lead.

The Play:  Bet #6 Studlydoright (7-2) to win and box him in trifectas along with #1 Mentee (4-5) and #8 Mo Plex (6-1).