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.

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.

Belmont at the Big A, Race 10, $200,000 Ruffian Stakes, post time 6:16 p.m. ET

The Grade 2 Ruffian Stakes has drawn a field of 11 fillies and mares set to run one mile on the main track for a purse of $200,000. This is a good betting race loaded with contenders but perhaps none are better than #10 My Mane Squeeze, an Aqueduct horse for the course that has won three of her previous four starts on this track. More recently she won a pair of graded stakes races at Churchill Downs last year going seven furlongs to go along with her 2-for-2 record at one mile. My Mane Squeeze was not embarrassed when third last time out in the Grade 1 Resolute Racing Madison Stakes at Keeneland despite needing that race after a break of nearly six months. She’s perfectly spotted to get back into the winner’s circle here in her second race off the layoff. There seems to be some pace in this race, but the field lacks a true dyed-in-the-wool frontrunner. The speed of the speed could turn out to be #1 Takethemoneyhoney who is likely to be sent from the rail and could prove very tough to catch if she makes the lead as expected. This is her stakes debut, but she’s won three of her four starts to date and came within a nose two races ago of maintaining a perfect record. The 94 Beyer Speed Figure she earned last time out in her 5 ¼-length win at Laurel Park indicates she fits well against this competition. The horse that denied Takethemoneyhoney a perfect record two races ago is also entered in this race. #3 Catherine Wheel exits a third-place finish in a Laurel Stakes race on a muddy track last time out, gets Flavien Prat aboard for trainer Chad Brown, and has good enough form at this mile distance to be considered a major contender.

The Play: Bet on #10 My Mane Squeeze (7-2) to win and play her in exacta and trifecta boxes with #1 Takethemoneyhoney (10-1) and #3 Catherine Wheel (8-1). Start the late daily double using My Mane Squeeze with the top three picks from race 11.

Belmont at the Big A, Race 11, $200,000 Peter Pan Stakes, post time 6:46 p.m. ET

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The Grade 3 Peter Pan Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on the main track serves as New York’s local prep race for the Belmont Stakes although the two races are currently being run at different tracks. A 10-horse field of 3-year-olds has been assembled and many of them aspire to use a top finish in this race as a springboard to the third jewel of the Triple Crown. The horse in the race most likely to live up to that potential is #4 Hill Road, who will be making only his second start as a 3-year-old since coming over from Ireland last fall with a promising third-place finish in the FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Presented by TAA. He finished third in the Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby in his only outing this year in what strictly looked like a prep race for trainer Chad Brown. Hill Road then missed a start in the final round of Derby prep races but finds this ideal spot to rebound at an added distance that will suit him against a field that lacks a legitimate standout. #8 Captain Cook is another horse that will excel based on his win earlier this year in the $250,000 Withers Stakes at this track and distance where he earned the top career Beyer Speed Figure in this field with a 94. Captain Cook put all his Derby hopes in one basket last time out in Aqueduct’s Grade 2 Wood Memorial Stakes Presented by Resorts World Casino but came up short on qualifying points with a disappointing fourth-place finish when he was forced to do all the dirty work trying to chase the otherwise unchecked Rodriguez on the lead. A better pace scenario in this race should lead to a better finish. There are plenty of other contenders in this race for spots in the trifecta, but the best of them could turn out to be #6 Uncaged, who enters stakes company for the first time for trainer Todd Pletcher after winning two of his three lifetime starts to date. Unlike closers that don’t really close such as #1 Vassimo and #5 McAfee, Uncaged blew past an allowance field from last to first in his prior race which was his first stretchout to one mile. He’s sired by Curlin and he could be even better with an additional furlong to work with at 1 1/8 miles in the Peter Pan.

The Play: Bet on #4 Hill Road (5-2) to win and play him in exacta and trifecta boxes with #6 Uncaged (8-1) and #8 Captain Cook (2-1).