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, Jan. 27

One of the standout days of racing and wagering on the winter Thoroughbred calendar is this Saturday at Gulfstream Park. Pegasus World Cup day will be a 13-race card containing seven graded stakes headlined by the eighth running of the $3 million, Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes Presented by Baccarat. The undercard is highlighted by the day’s turf feature, the Grade 1 1/ST BET Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational Stakes. These two highly anticipated events have drawn full fields and will go as the final two races of the afternoon. For this weekend’s winners, let’s focus on January’s two biggest races in horse racing, the Pegasus World Cup Turf and the Pegasus World Cup. Good luck and enjoy a tremendous day of racing and wagering at Gulfstream this Saturday.

Gulfstream Park, Race 12, $1 million 1/ST Bet Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational Stakes, 4:55 p.m. ET

The Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Turf has drawn a full and competitive field of 12 with two also-eligible contenders set to go 1 1/8 miles on the grass. The morning-line favorite in the race is the 4-year-old filly #9 Warm Heart who hails from the global powerhouse Coolmore connections, with jockey Ryan Moore riding for trainer Aidan O’Brien, who are impossible to ignore. She just barely missed by a neck in the Maker's Mark Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf and is obviously talented, but that doesn’t mean that she will be a good bet in the Pegasus Turf at low odds at a distance that is shorter than her wheelhouse distances of 1 ¼ miles and 1 ½ miles. Plus, she’s returning from a December trip halfway around the world to Hong Kong and again facing high-quality male competition. She should be used on your tickets, but not on top. The horse that deserves the win bets in this race is #3 Integration, a lightly raced new 4-year-old who has impressed so far with wins in all three races to date, including stakes wins in the Grade 3 New Kent County Virginia Derby and the Grade 2 Hill Prince Stakes, which both were at today’s 1 1/8-mile distance. He is not only winning, he's doing so impressively, and the sky looks like the limit for Integration starting with his first Grade 1 win this Saturday at Gulfstream. Speaking of Grade 1 wins, that distinction has somehow managed to elude #5 Webslinger so far despite a very good year of stakes racing in 2023 that ended when he just missed by a neck of winning the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby at Del Mar to settle for second on Dec. 2. Don’t let the ridiculous 15-1 Pegasus Turf morning-line odds fool you, he has a major shot to get over the hump versus this field and post an upset. Finally, from a pace perspective, #11 Main Event is a serious threat to go all the way in this race if he is not challenged for the lead up front. Main Event went wire-to-wire in the local Pegasus Turf prep race to raise his grass record at Gulfstream to three wins and a second in four races on this course.

The Play: Bet to win on #3 Integration (3-1) and play him in a three-horse exacta box with #5 Webslinger (15-1) and #9 Warm Heart (9-5). Trifecta players can add #11 Main Event (10-1) to the others and bet a four-horse exacta box, or can play a more economical ticket keying #3 Integration on top of #5 Webslinger, #9 Warm Heart, and #11 Main Event.

Gulfstream Park, Race 13, $3,000,000 Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes Presented by Baccarat, 5:40 p.m. ET

Grade 3 winner First Mission (Eclipse Sportswire)

The race we’re all waiting for is the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup at 1 1/8 miles on the main track which has drawn a full field of 12 horses plus one also-eligible entrant. It’s a heavyweight match-up of winning horses from around the country that are trying to establish themselves atop the handicap division in 2024. The horse that is sitting on a breakout performance in that regard is #8 First Mission, a horse that looked primed to join the cream of the crop in last year’s 3year-old division when he won the Grade 3 Stonestreet Lexington Stakes at the Keeneland spring meet but then missed much of the rest of the season when sidelined until October. He won his return race and served notice last time out when he just missed by a nose in the Grade 2 Clark Stakes Presented by Norton Healthcare at Churchill Downs. He’ll be sitting right off the lead and would benefit from another horse in the race doing the pace dirty work and pressing the speedy #7 National Treasure for the lead. Based on his Grade 2 Cigar Mile Handicap win last time, that horse could be #4 Hoist the Gold, who benefitted from that new front-running style according to post-race comments by jockey John Velazquez. If Hoist the Gold doesn’t challenge, that could leave National Treasure loose on the lead, and National Treasure has already shown how dangerous he can be in that scenario with his win in the 2023 Preakness Stakes and in his near-miss last time out a nose behind Horse of the Year candidate Cody’s Wish in the Big Ass Fans Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile. The late runner in the race that could best take advantage of some live pace at this distance would be #2 O’Connor, who enters the Pegasus in his best form off back-to-back graded stakes wins in his last two starts, including Harlan’s Holiday Stakes right here at Gulfstream Park. Finally, just a reminder that outside posts have always been a disadvantage at this distance on the Gulfstream main track, especially horses drawn wider than post 8.

The Play:  Bet #8 First Mission (7-2) to win and box him in the exactas and trifectas with #2 O’Connor (8-1) and #7 National Treasure (9-5).