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.

Saturday, July 26

The third weekend of the 2025 Saratoga summer season is headlined by the Grade 2 Jim Dandy Stakes Presented by Mohegan Sun, which attracted Sovereignty, the winner of two-thirds of this spring’s Triple Crown. The winner and other top finishers in the race are expected to advance to next month’s DraftKings Travers Stakes in what will be the most anticipated race of the meet. Saturday’s other Spa feature is the Grade 3 Lake George Stakes Presented by Surfside for 3-year-old fillies on the turf. For this weekend’s winners, let’s focus on making some money on these two Saturday stakes at Saratoga. Best of luck.

Saratoga Race Course, Race 9, $175,000 Lake George Stakes Presented by Surfside, 5:04 p.m. ET

The Grade 3 Lake George Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on the turf has drawn a 10-horse field of 3-year-old fillies plus one main-track-only entrant. It’s a fascinating race because the fillies entered come from various stakes races at several different tracks and this race will give them a chance to see how they stack up against each other. #5 Classic Q exits a win in Saratoga’s $150,000 Wild Applause Stakes, in which she beat a pair of Chad Brown trainees who are both entered back in this spot – #4 Lavender Disaster and #10 Play With Fire. Both of those Brown horses are legitimate contenders again today, but they’ll face the same problem they had last time when Classic Q got out front to a clear lead, controlled the pace, and led from start to finish. Looking around this field, there once again appears to be a lack of pace to put pressure on Classic Q. Under those circumstances, Classic Q certainly looms a threat to repeat. The only question for Classic Q here will be the added distance of 1 1/16 miles as opposed to one mile last time. Will that open the door for an upset? It’s possible, especially if longshots like #6 Princess Attitude and #9 Good Long Cry go up to press the pace. Lavender Disaster also may do some of the dirty work, which will give Play With Fire her best chance to turn the tables on Classic Q. Aside from the favorites, there appears to be a very live longshot in the field, #1 Reining Flowers. She will be making her third start of the year and still has not yet had a chance to show her best stuff yet in her two prior outings as a 3-year-old, first in an off-the-turf race and then last time on a very yielding turf course at Penn National. She looked excellent at Saratoga last summer when she broke her maiden at the Spa and then ran a close third with a troubled trip in the P.G. Johnson Stakes. John Velazquez, who has ridden this horse all over the map, shows continued faith in her and keeps the mount at 15-1 on the morning line.

The Play: Bet on #1 Reining Flowers (15-1) to win and play her in exacta and trifecta boxes with #5 Classic Q (2-1) and #10 Play With Fire (4-1).

Saratoga Race Course, Race 10, $500,000 Jim Dandy Stakes presented by Mohegan Sun, post time 5:41 p.m. ET

Ohio Derby winner Mo Plex (Eclipse Sportswire)

The race everyone is waiting for this weekend is the Grade 2 Jim Dandy Stakes, which has drawn a short but select five-horse field of 3-year-olds, led by Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve and Belmont Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets winner #5 Sovereignty. He is the horse to beat at 2-5 odds. Unlike the other late runners in this field that include hard hitters like #2 Sandman and #4 Hill Road, Sovereignty has already shown he is talented enough to flash a bit of tactical speed if he needs to, just like he did when he raced much closer to the pace than usual last time and won the Belmont Stakes. The ability to be closer to the pace is important in this race, because the Jim Dandy field has a complete lack of pace entered other than #3 Mo Plex, who won this spring’s seven-furlong Bay Shore Stakes leading from start to finish and exits a win in the Grade 3 Ohio Derby last month. Mo Plex has a tactical advantage as the lone speed, and that gives him a chance at the upset, or at least a chance to hold on for a spot in the exacta. Go ahead and box it. That way you’ll really get paid if Mo Plex manages to come out on top.

The Play: Bet on #5 Sovereignty (2-5) to win and play him in an exacta box with #3 Mo Plex.