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.

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.

Santa Anita Park will be one of horse racing’s epicenters this weekend as a host of several important stakes races that will also serve as key prep races for next month’s Breeders’ Cup World Championships at Del Mar. The 10-race Santa Anita program on Saturday will include three Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series “Win and You’re In” races that will send their winners and other top finishers onward to various Breeders’ Cup races on Nov. 1-2. For this weekend’s winners, let’s take a closer look at handicapping Santa Anita’s trio of key Saturday stakes races – the Grade 2 Oak Leaf Stakes Presented by Oak Tree, the Grade 2 Rodeo Drive Stakes, and the Grade 1 American Pharoah Stakes Presented by DK Horse. We can make some money and build up our Breeders’ Cup bankrolls by picking some winners. Best of luck and enjoy a great day of racing and wagering this Saturday.

Santa Anita Park, Race 3, $200,000 Oak Leaf Stakes Presented by Oak Tree, post time 5 p.m. ET

The Oak Leaf Stakes has drawn a field of eight 2-year-old fillies set to run 1 1/16 miles in a prep for the NetJets Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. The race will be the first foray around two turns for seven of the eight horses in the race, and half of the field all come from the barn of trainer Bob Baffert. The horse that best handles the added distance is likely to be the winner. All eyes will be on Baffert’s #4 Nooni, a $1.8 million 2-year-old purchase who began her career like gangbusters with a strong Santa Anita maiden win at first asking followed by a win in the Grade 3 Sorrento Stakes at Del Mar. She then flopped without any apparent excuses last time when fifth in the FanDuel Racing Del Mar Debutante, however, and this race will be a test whether or not she can rebound and if she can handle the added distance. Those are too many “ifs” at low odds if you are betting this race, and while Nooni should be respected in the exactas and trifectas, there should be other better options to bet to win. Baffert won the Del Mar Debutante with his “other” horse, #3 Tenma, who grinded away from off the pace to get up and win by a nose at seven furlongs. She lacks some of the speed and pizzaz of Nooni, but she could prove to be a better choice Saturday in her first attempt at going a distance. To round out the rest of the exotics in this race, another of Baffert’s entrants, #8 Non Compliant, exits a promising maiden win at six furlongs in her career debut and won like a horse that could handle more distance. Jockey Juan Hernandez is off Nooni to ride Non Compliant on Saturday.

The Play: Bet on #3 Tenma (5-2) to win and play her in exacta and trifecta boxes with #4 Nooni (3-1) and #8 Non Compliant (2-1).

Santa Anita Park, Race 8, $200,000 Rodeo Drive Stakes, post time 7:30 p.m. ET

The Rodeo Drive has attracted a field of seven fillies and mares going 1 ¼ miles on the grass in a prep for next month’s Maker’s Mark Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf. The horse to beat may be #4 Iscreamuscream, a 3-year-old who comes into this race with a 4-for-4 career record including a win last time in the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks Presented by Keeneland Sales, which was the longest race of her career to date at 1 1/8 miles. She’ll add another furlong in this race and will be facing older horses, many of whom have more experience at longer distances, and therefore she may not be the best win bet. Instead, the pick in the Rodeo Drive is #2 Sunset Glory, a filly that shows a positive career upward trajectory this year with three straight wins, including a $100,000 stakes victory at Del Mar last time going 1 3/8 miles. That effort earned her a spot in today’s race, and all indications are that she’ll be ready. The other main contender should be #7 Aspen Grove, who was a Grade 1 winner as a 3-year-old last year and had been competitive against company similar to what’s entered in this race earlier in 2024. She exits a 1 3/8-mile win at Saratoga last time where she beat next-out Kentucky Downs winner Avenue Niel and #3 Be Your Best, whose claim to fame was a close second place finish at this course and distance last winter in the Grade 1 American Oaks.

The Play:  Bet #2 Sunset Glory (5-2) to win and use her in exacta and trifecta boxes with #4 Iscreamuscream (8-5) and #7 Aspen Grove (4-1).

Santa Anita Park, Race 9, $300,000 American Pharoah Stakes presented by DK Horse, post time 8:00 p.m. ET

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The American Pharoah Stakes is a Grade 1 race for 2-year-olds set to run 1 1/16 miles in a prep race for next month’s FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Presented by TAA. The seven-horse field contains three horses trained by Bob Baffert, and one or all of those runners should be amongst the principal contenders based on recent runnings of the race, which Baffert has won five of the last six years. The pick is Baffert’s #7 Getaway Car, who looked like SoCal’s best juvenile earlier this summer after crushing maidens and then repeating with a 5 ½-length win in the Grade 3 Best Pal Stakes. Last time out, Getaway Car set a swift pace early in the seven-furlong, Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity only to empty out in the stretch and finish fourth behind stablemate Gaming, but on Saturday the instructions will be to harness the horse’s speed much more effectively. Blinkers are removed, and the horse has turned-in two recent dynamite workouts without them in preparation for a rebound effort in this race. Baffert’s #3 Citizen Bull is another top contender in the American Pharoah, as is #1 McKinzie Street trained by Tim Yakteen, after the pair finished third and second, respectively in the Del Mar Futurity. McKinzie Street, in particular, looks dangerous based on his runner-up finish, beaten less than two lengths by Gaming after getting shuffled back a couple of positions earlier in the race.

The Play:  Bet #7 Getaway Car (2-1) to win and use him in an exacta box with #1 McKinzie Street (9-5). Add-in #3 Citizen Bull (5-2) for trifecta boxes.