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 Triple Crown trail takes a break this weekend as headline racing from other divisions takes center stage at tracks around the country. Two of Saturday’s stakes races are the Grade 3 $250,000 Whitmore Stakes for older sprinters at Oaklawn Park and the $100,000 Hutcheson Stakes for 3-year-old sprinters from Gulfstream Park, and those are the events we will focus on this week. Good luck on Saturday’s featured stakes.

Saturday, March 16

Gulfstream Park, Race 3, $100,000 Hutcheson Stakes, post time 2:08 p.m. ET

The $100,000 Hutcheson Stakes has assembled a field of seven fast 3-year-old sprinters set to run six furlongs. #4 Ship to Shore got to the lead last time in the $100,000 Limehouse Stakes at this track and distance and went all the way for an eight-length victory. He is hard to overlook in this spot based on that last result. #1 Patriot Spirit was unsuccessful in his stretchout attempt in a graded stakes last time, but now cuts back into a sprint which could be the key to success for this horse that already owns two sprint wins including a stakes race at Tampa Bay Downs two starts back. Gets blinkers on and Tyler Gaffalione picks up the mount.

The Play: Bet to win on #4 Ship to Shore (5-1) and box him on in the exacta with #1 Patriot Spirit (4-1).

Oaklawn Park, Race 9, $250,000 Whitmore Stakes, post time 5:23 p.m. ET

The Grade 3 Whitmore Stakes has drawn a field of seven older horses set to sprint six furlongs. The race seems to feature an evenly matched bunch of contenders and therefore it will be worthwhile to try to search for a live horse at a price. #5 Ninja Warrior steps up in class but has been good in Oaklawn sprints dating back to last year with three wins in the last four races and four total local wins to date including last time out. Many of his speed figures from those races stack up against his rivals in the Whitmore. Ninja Warrior might be only the second-best price play in the race, however, after #6 Jaxon Traveler, who owns two wins – both stakes – in his last three outings including a three-length wire-to-wire win in a $100,000 race at Sunland Park last time out and a 5 ½-length win three races ago in the $100,000 Zia Park Sprint Stakes with a very good speed figure. Flavien Prat is aboard for Steve Asmussen. The morning-line favorite in this race also cannot be discounted, and that is #2 Tejano Twist, who won back-to-back stakes at the end of last year, exits a solid second last time out in the $150,000 King Cotton Stakes at Oaklawn, and is the defending champion of this race.

The Play:  Bet #6 Jaxon Traveler (12-1) to win and box him in the exactas and trifectas along with #2 Tejano Twist (9-5) and #5 Ninja Warrior (5-1).