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.
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One of the fall racing season’s headline days annually is Clark Stakes Day at Churchill Downs on the day after Thanksgiving, and this year is no exception. Churchill Downs is hosting a special 12-race Friday card featuring the Grade 2 Clark Stakes Presented by Norton Healthcare with the supporting feature, the Grade 2 Mrs. Revere Stakes, topping the undercard. While the masses focus on finding Black Friday shopping deals, let’s shop for good prices on winners and exotics in these two stakes races. A win or two could significantly boost your buying power this holiday season. Best of luck and enjoy the races.

Friday, Nov. 29

Churchill Downs, Race 10, $300,000 Mrs. Revere Stakes, post time 5:18 p.m. ET

The Grade 2 Mrs. Revere Stakes has drawn a full field of 3-year-old fillies set to go 1 1/16 miles on the turf and it’s an interesting handicapping puzzle because you have to compare horses coming from various different class levels and distances in their recent races. You can make a legit case for at least half of the fillies in the starting gate, but the preponderance of the evidence points to #6 Pin Up Betty as the horse to beat. Pin Up Betty never threatened last time in the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes Presented by Dixiana but overcame some traffic and finished a solid fourth in that much tougher spot. She just missed by a head when second in the Grade 3 Pucker Up Stakes at Ellis Park this summer and raised her record to 2-for-2 over this course back in June when she won the Grade 3 Regret Stakes at a level similar to this one. The big question for Pin Up Betty is if the 1 1/16 miles in this race is too short for her, but it could turn out perfect if she establishes an ideal pace spot right in behind what could be a contested pace between #3 Kehoe Beach and #4 Pharoah’s Wine. #12 Poolside With Slim exits a win in the Grade 2 Bank of America Valley View Stakes at Keeneland where she beat three of these same rivals with a good effort. She’s drawn way out in the parking lot from post 12, but many of the horses in this field have absolutely no speed and she should be able to establish decent early position which would give her a fair chance at a repeat. The other major win contender in this race is the aforementioned Kehoe Beach, who has been in tremendous form in back-to-back wire-to-wire allowance romps. If Pharoah’s Wine doesn’t run with her early, she could again shake loose up front and handle the step in class vs. stakes company.

The Play: Bet on #6 Pin Up Betty (5-1) to win and play her in exacta and trifecta boxes with #3 Kehoe Beach (3-1) and #12 Poolside With Slim (6-1).

Churchill Downs, Race 11, $600,000 Clark Stakes Presented by Norton Healthcare, post time 5:48 p.m. ET

The headline race of Thanksgiving weekend is the Grade 2 Clark Stakes, which has drawn 10 3-year-olds and up set to go 1 1/8 miles on the main track. The field for this race contains a bunch of stone closers which provides a great opportunity for #9 Cooke Creek to get to the front and go wire-to-wire. He exits a runner-up finish in the Grade 2 Lukas Classic Stakes, where he got nipped by a neck in the late stages to end a three-race winning streak. He can make amends in the Clark. If not, the most likely winner will be #6 Hit Show, the horse that caught Cooke Creek to win the Lukas Classic and has since won Keeneland’s Grade 2 Hagyard Fayette Stakes to add to his impressive ledger for the year 2024 (four wins in five starts). Hit Show must come from off the pace, but he’ll get the jump on other deeper closers in this field like #7 Rattle N Roll and #8 Red Route One who will be racing even further behind. There is also an interesting 3-year-old entered in this race that is looking to shake things up a bit, as #5 Most Wanted is facing older horses for the first time in his career. Most Wanted has racked-up a perfect 4-for-4 record so far including wins in the Grade 3 Oklahoma Derby and the $260,000 Ellis Park Derby for trainer Brad Cox, and he could be ready for this tougher task. At very least he should keep Cooke Creek company up front, which provides a glimmer of hope for all the aforementioned closers in this race.

The Play: Bet #9 Cooke Creek (6-1) to win and play him in exacta and trifecta boxes with #5 Most Wanted (7-2) and #6 Hit Show (3-1).