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, Nov. 18

November post-Breeders’ Cup racing does not get the notoriety of other times of the year in terms of top-notch racing and wagering, but when the weather holds up it is actually an extremely underrated season in Thoroughbred racing. Case in point is this Saturday’s 10-race card at Aqueduct, which is low on glamour but high on quality with four stakes races and plenty of other good fields. Saturday’s featured races at Aqueduct are both good enough to warrant the attention of handicappers, including the $150,000 Aqueduct Turf Sprint Championship and the featured Grade 2 Hill Prince Stakes for 3-year-olds on the grass. If you can come up with the winners of these two stakes, you will be well on your way to a winning Saturday. Good luck with your bets and enjoy the weekend.

Aqueduct, Race 5, $250,000 Hill Prince Stakes, post time 1:48 p.m. ET

Integration (Coady Photography)

The Hill Prince Stakes is contested at 1 1/8 miles for 3-year-olds on the grass and has drawn an interesting nine-horse field plus one main-track-only horse. #3 Integration has won both career outings to date and made believers out of many horseplayers with his victory last time in the Grade 3 New Kent County Virginia Derby at Colonial Downs, which he won with a strong stretch rally in just his second lifetime start for trainer Shug McGaughey. Everything seems to be in place for another win today. Integration is already proven against graded stakes-caliber competition at this 1 1/8-mile distance, winning jockey Kendrick Carmouche is back for the mount, and the Hill Prince is the next logical stakes spot on the calendar that you would expect him to be pointed to. He earned a legit speed figure for the Virginia Derby score, and versus these he’s the horse to beat. Since Integration is a big favorite, let’s focus on the trifectas in lieu of exactas in this race and use Integration all alone in the top spot. #1 Freedom Trail exits a good effort last time when second by a neck and seems to be a completely different and better horse here on the Aqueduct turf course than he is anywhere else. Trainer Todd Pletcher has been intent on trying to get #9 Classic Catch on the grass but keeps being thwarted by New York’s rainy weather. In the meantime, the colt is doing just fine on the dirt, but Pletcher hopefully has found his turf spot in this race and Classic Catch will be extremely dangerous if he improves upon his already good form. Finally, a big longshot with a chance to get into the exotics and really pump up the price of the trifectas is #2 Laurel Valley, who was third in a lesser race last time but could have won that day with a clean trip.

The Play: Bet to win on #3 Integration (1-1) to win and key him on top of three horses in the second and third spots in the trifectas using #1 Freedom Trail (8-1), #2 Laurel Valley (30-1), and #9 Classic Catch (8-1).

Aqueduct, Race 9, $150,000 Aqueduct Turf Sprint Championship, post time 3:43 p.m. ET

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The Aqueduct Turf Sprint Championship goes at six furlongs on the grass and has drawn a field of 12 plus also-eligibles and main-track-only horses. This is a wide-open field and has the makings of a great betting race where you can make a legitimate case to win for many of the entrants. The standout of the bunch in terms of his best recent races is #2 Alogon, who finished second by a head in his most recent turf sprint outing in Colonial Downs’ Da Hoss Stakes and then was flattered to the extreme when winner Nobals came back to win the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint. Toss out the loss for Alogon last time out in an off-the-turf race. He also won a turf sprint stakes at Monmouth Park over the summer and won his only prior outing on this Aqueduct turf course at this time last year. Has a pattern of running big in every other race, and today is his turn to uncork another winning effort. Another of the major contenders in the field is #11 Thin White Duke, a New York-bred that enters off a string of good efforts in races on both turf and dirt. His last turf outing was a quality win in the $145,000 Harvey Pack Stakes at Saratoga where he defeated Big Invasion, who won his next race and then was second behind Nobals in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint. After the top two contenders you can pretty much make a case for any of these runners in the back end of trifectas. Give the nod to #6 Nothing Better, based on his stellar career record in turf sprints including a win in this very same race last year, his good record on the Aqueduct turf course, and his proven ability to excel at this six-furlong distance.

The Play:  Bet #2 Alogon (6-1) to win and use him in three-horse exacta and trifecta boxes along with #6 Nothing Better (6-1) and #11 Thin White Duke (5-1).