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 final weekend of April is the calm before the storm in Thoroughbred racing as all eyes turn toward next weekend’s Longines Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve. All too easy to overlook as the calendar turns from April to May is the return of world class spring racing to New York as the best jockeys, trainers, and jockeys the sport has to offer recongregate in the Big Apple. In the absence of Belmont Park this year and next as the track undergoes renovation, New York’s spring and early summer racing will take place at Aqueduct. This Saturday, Aqueduct’s nine-race card offers a preview of the high-quality racing to come this season during the Belmont at the Big A meet. For this weekend’s winners, let’s take a closer look at two of the better betting races on the program including the featured $125,000 Woodhaven Stakes on the grass. Best of luck!

Saturday, April 27

Aqueduct, Race 5, $37,000 starter allowance, post time 3:28 p.m. ET

Saturday’s race 5 at Aqueduct is a six-furlong starter allowance race that has drawn a nine-horse field (seven betting interests). The race features a standout Aqueduct horse of the course with #4 Colonel Vargo coming into the race with a perfect 6-for-6 career local record that includes a current four-race winning streak in 2024. Among Colonel Vargo’s victims during his current win streak have included #1a Mr Phil and #2 Printrack, and he appears to have few weaknesses in a race at this class level and at this distance, with a versatile running style and speed figures that stack up nicely against this field. The only question Saturday for Colonel Vargo would be his new connections after being claimed in his last race. In the exactas and trifectas, the aforementioned Printrack makes the most sense based on his notable current streak of nine straight finishes in the exacta dating back to last summer at Saratoga. The other main contender in the field is #5 Ryan’s Cat, who just missed by a neck last time at the $20,000 claiming level in a tough-luck loss while 8 ¾ lengths ahead of the third-place finisher.

The Play: Bet to win on #4 Colonel Vargo (3-1). Play three-horse exacta and trifecta boxes along with #2 Printrack (8-5) and #5 Ryan’s Cat (8-1).

Aqueduct, Race 6, $125,000 Woodhaven Stakes, post time 4:02 p.m. ET

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The feature race on Aqueduct’s Saturday card is the $125,000 Woodhaven Stakes, which drew a seven-horse field set to race one mile on the turf. The headline attraction and morning-line favorite in the field is #2 Carson’s Run, who returns from nearly a six-month layoff for his 3-year-old debut after a promising juvenile campaign last year that included a Grade 1 win in Woodbine’s bet365 Summer Stakes. Trainer Christophe Clement has picked out a winnable spot for the colt’s return from the sidelines and any of Saturday’s challengers will need to step-up significantly in order to beat him. Nevertheless, if there is a vulnerability for Carson’s Run here, it is the layoff, and that will open the door for an upset. One horse with a chance is #7 Elysian Meadows, who is making his career turf debut for trainer Bill Mott after posting two wins in four starts so far on the dirt. This colt’s connections appear to be over their case of “Derby fever” after losses in the Sam F. Davis Stakes and the Wood Memorial Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets, and Mott now appears to get down to business traveling a different road with Elysian Meadows, whose future likely could be on the grass. The other horse to watch in the Woodhaven field is #4 Good Lord Lorrie, who must overcome a long layoff but had made a strong impression in his only start so far when winning at first asking from off the pace in a turf sprint maiden race last summer at Saratoga. He returns as a more mature 3-year-old for trainer George Weaver, who has won with 4 of his last 21 horses returning from similar lengths of time on the sidelines.

The Play:  Bet #2 Carson’s Run (9-5) to win and box him in the exacta and trifecta with #4 Good Lord Lorrie (9-2) and #7 Elysian Meadows (7-2).