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 27

The 2024 season at Saratoga Race Course is hitting full stride and the track will host a pair of prominent stakes races this Saturday as a part of a top-notch 12-race card. For this weekend’s winners, let’s focus on Saturday’s co-featured races at Saratoga – the Grade 1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap for sprinters and the Grade 2 Jim Dandy Stakes Presented by Mohegan Sun for 3-year-olds. Picking the winners of these two races and cashing tickets in the exotics should help all of us enjoy a successful day of racing and wagering this Saturday at Saratoga. Best of luck!

Saratoga, Race 6, $350,000 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap, post time 3:20 p.m. ET

Some of the top sprinters in the east take to the track in the Grade 1 Vanderbilt Handicap going six furlongs. The favorite in the race will likely be #6 Skelly who spent much of the winter and spring bolstering his argument as the best sprinter in the country at Oaklawn Park where he went 4-for-4 during the meet. He also finished second in the Riyadh Dirt Sprint in Saudi Arabia, but the only concern about Skelly still remains whether or not he can be as good as he is at Oaklawn at any other track. He exits a second-place finish at Churchill Downs last time, and while that loss looks a little better now that the horse that beat him has already come back to win another stakes, it still is worth noting that his Beyer Speed Figure at Churchill was significantly lower than in any of his recent races at Oaklawn. Skelly is a deserving favorite here, but he is vulnerable nonetheless. He will go to the lead and will need to be caught. An interesting up-and-coming challenger in this race is #5 Subrogate, who enters this race with a dramatically improving pattern in all of his three races so far this year culminating in a six-length win at Belmont at the Big A last time out with a 106 Beyer speed figure for a 1:15.45 effort at 6 ½ furlongs. This race will be a class test for Subrogate, but he will get a four-pound allowance from Skelly here and will be worth a shot at good odds with a chance to beat the favorite. Finally, if you consider a pace meltdown in this race to be a real possibility, you should also include late-running #1 Nakatomi on your tickets. Nakatomi burst on the scene of national relevance with his game third-place finish in the 2023 Qatar Racing Breeders’ Cup Sprint and before and after that race he’s become reliable for high-level in-the-money finishes.

The Play: Bet to win on #5 Subrogate (7-2) to win and play him in trifecta and/or exacta boxes along with #1 Nakatomi (5-2) and #6 Skelly (6-5).

Saratoga, Race 10, $500,000 Jim Dandy Stakes Presented by Mohegan Sun, post time 5:43 p.m. ET

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A field of six 3-year-olds is set to run 1 1/8 miles in Saturday’s Grade 2 Jim Dandy Stakes as the pieces begin to fall into place for next month’s “Mid-Summer Derby” at Saratoga, the DraftKings Travers Stakes. Some of the top contenders in the Travers are expected to exit the Jim Dandy and therefore, not surprisingly, this race has drawn some of the best horses in the 3-year-old division. Most handicappers are in agreement that  #1 Sierra Leone is one of the top horses in the country and a leading contender for the Travers based on wins earlier this year in the Grade 2 Risen Star Stakes and the Grade 1 Toyota Blue Grass Stakes, but we are quickly approaching put-up or shut-up time for him following close-but-no-cigar losses when second in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve and then third in the Belmont Stakes. This time around should once again be Sierra Leone’s time to shine, and he’ll have no excuse if he can’t get it done today as a late runner who should enjoy a perfect pace set-up in this field loaded with early speed. As good as Sierra Leone is, he is not the horse in the race with the top credentials and the highest ceiling. That horse is #6 Fierceness, who was the 2023 FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Presented by TAA winner and 2-year-old champion who in March won the 2024 Grade 1 Curlin Florida Derby presented by Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm at Xalapa by 13 ½ lengths. Fierceness seems to be held back only by his own inconsistency, but even if his pattern to date has been on-again, off-again, Fierceness still would be due for an on-again effort this Saturday.

The Play:  Bet #1 Sierra Leone (1-1) to win and play an exacta box with #6 Fierceness (9-5).