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 Talking Horses, and on broadcast TV on WAVE-3 Louisville, ABC KOLO-8 in Reno, Nevada, and channel 72 Long Island Cablevision.

Noel Michaels’ Weekend Winners is brought to you by Horseplayers.com, the official online qualifying site of the Breeders' Cup Betting Challenge (BCBC) and National Horseplayers Championship (NHC). Horseplayers.com offers low-cost feeders every day and BCBC and NHC qualifiers every weekend, and it’s the only site where you can qualify for the $1.25 million BCBC. It’s free to sign up – click here to get information about registering and how to enter contests.

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, Sept. 23

Parx Racing gets its time to shine this weekend as the track hosts the Grade 1, $1 million Pennsylvania Derby on its biggest race day of the year. The Pennsylvania Derby and the day’s other Grade 1 feature, the $1 million Cotillion Stakes for 3-year-old fillies, headline a 14-race card at Parx on Saturday that includes 10 total stakes races with five of them graded. Many of the races on the card look like interesting handicapping puzzles and should ensure a standout day of racing and wagering. For this week’s winners, let’s concentrate on the 3-year-old fillies in the Cotillion, as well as one of the main undercard races, the Grade 2, $400,000 Gallant Bob Stakes. Both races offer excellent opportunities to make some money if you are able to come up with the right horses. Best of luck and enjoy Pennsylvania Derby day from Parx.

Parx Racing, Race 11, $400,000 Gallant Bob Stakes, post time 4:35 p.m. ET

The $400,000 Gallant Bob Stakes for 3-year-olds sprinting six furlongs on the dirt did not come up looking much like a Grade 2 race on paper, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be a good betting race to focus on this Saturday. The 10-horse field is topped by morning-line favorite #9 Ryvit trained by Steve Asmussen. Ryvit may or may not be the horse to beat depending on which version of him you think will show up. Will it be the horse that finished fifth in both of his last two races, or will it be the Ryvit who won five races in a row earlier this season, including the Grade 3 Chick Lang Stakes Presented by Case Tractor at Pimlico? It very well could be the latter since you could give Ryvit excuses for both recent losses, including two races ago in the Grade 2 Amsterdam Stakes at Saratoga, where he lost his best chance with a bad start. Most recently, he didn’t appear to handle the bull-ring layout at Charles Town in the $350,000 Robert Hilton Memorial Stakes. This looks like a perfect spot for a positive rebound for Ryvit. #5 Nautical Star comes out of an allowance win at Gulfstream in his first race back from a 4 ½-month layoff in a race where he crashed into the starting gate and had to overcome that bad start in order to win. He has shown plenty of ability in his sprints so far and still has plenty of room for further improvement. It’s worth betting on that improvement coming today. The other logical horse in the race for the exotics is #4 Damon’s Mound, who lost to Ryvit by 4 ¾ lengths in a stakes race at Ellis Park this summer but rebounded nicely with a win in the aforementioned Hilton Memorial Stakes at Charles Town last time. He already owns a graded stakes victory earlier in his career with a win in the Grade 2 Saratoga Special in 2022.

The Play: Bet to win on #5 Nautical Star (9-2) and play him in three-horse exacta and trifecta boxes with #4 Damon’s Mound (4-1) and #9 Ryvit (5-2).

Parx Racing, Race 12, $1 million Cotillion Stakes, 5:20 p.m. ET

Ceiling Crusher (BENOIT photo)

The Grade 1 Cotillion Stakes got the big-name horse it wanted with favorite #3 Pretty Mischievous topping the nine-horse field of 3-year-old fillies set to run 1 1/16 miles on the main track for a $1 million purse. Pretty Mischievous appears to be on her way to a championship in the division thanks to a loaded resume that includes wins in the Grade 1 Longines Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs and the Grade 1 Acorn Stakes Presented by Great Jones Distilling Co. at Belmont Park, which not only makes her the horse to beat this Saturday but also puts a target on her back for the other horses in this race. It certainly would be no surprise to see Pretty Mischievous in the mix in the Cotillion, but others in the field offer better value from a betting perspective. The challengers are led by the intriguing California-bred #2 Ceiling Crusher, who ships to Parx just three weeks after beating open company last time out in the Grade 3 Torrey Pines Stakes at Del Mar. That win raised her record in two-turn races to 2-for-2 when you also include her Cal.-bred win by 17 lengths in the $147,000 Melair Stakes on May 28 at Santa Anita. Ceiling Crusher is loaded with early speed and capable of going wire-to-wire against these, but it’s also nice to see she’s shown the ability to rate in three of her other wins this year and does not need a clear lead in order to win. The other interesting challenger in the Cotillion is the Chad Brown-trained #5 Occult, who took a giant step forward last time out when blowing the doors off the Grade 3 Monmouth Oaks by 10 ¼ lengths at this 1 1/16-mile distance. That runaway win came at the expense of #1 Foggy Night, the Grade 3 Delaware Oaks winner who has three wins and two seconds in five races this year.

The Play:  Bet #2 Ceiling Crusher (5-1) to win and use her in three-horse exacta and trifecta boxes with #3 Pretty Mischievous (2-1) and #5 Occult (6-1).