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.

Happy New Year everyone! Let’s kickoff 2026 with a new set of Weekend Winners focusing on Saturday’s two stakes races at Gulfstream Park, the Mucho Macho Man Stakes for newly turned 3-year-olds and the Ginger Brew Stakes for 3-year-old fillies on the grass. If we can pick the winners of these two early January features, we will be well on our way to good start to the new year. Best of luck.

Saturday, Jan. 3

Gulfstream Park, Race 6, $175,000 Ginger Brew Stakes, post time 2:48 p.m. ET

The Ginger Brew Stakes features a field of eight 3-year-old fillies prepared to run one mile on the grass. The horse to beat is #6 Sister Troienne, who comes in on a three-race winning streak where she has demolished the competition in all three races including a Churchill Downs turf maiden win, a Keeneland turf allowance win, and a $100,000 stakes win last time on Gulfstream’s all-weather track. No rival has finished anywhere near her in any of her wins and she should be able to make it four in a row against this competition. The two main threats, at least in the exactas and trifectas, will come from the pair of Saffie Joseph Jr.-trained entrants in the field, #3 R Slew of Cash and #4 Spirit Doll. R Slew of Cash will need to turn the tables on Sister Troienne, who beat her last time, but that race was on the all-weather track and not on the turf. R Slew of Cash was a winner on this course when last seen on the grass and has plenty of upside for these connections with jockey Tyler Gaffalione taking over the mount. Spirit Doll began her career on the dirt but showed a drastic improvement last time when switched to the turf for the first time with a strong 6 ½-length win in Gulfstream’s $75,000 Our Dear Peggy Stakes at this one-mile distance. She’s had two more months to grow up since then and should be expected to show up with another big effort.

The Play: Bet on #6 Sister Troienne to win and play her in exacta and trifecta boxes along with #3 R Slew of Cash and #4 Spirit Doll.

Gulfstream Park, Race 10, $175,000 Mucho Macho Man Stakes, post time 4:48 p.m. ET

The Mucho Macho Man Stakes is the first step on Gulfstream Park’s road to the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (although it does not offer qualifying points) and will be the first stretchout attempt to a mile for many of the horses in the nine-horse field. The race looks like a fairly straightforward chalky exacta box so don’t try to re-invent the wheel and just go ahead and load up on the two favorites. We’ll give the nod to impressive first-out winner #3 Epic Summer for the win based on his big 3 ¼-length maiden score at Belmont at the Big A for trainer George Weaver. Epic Summer finished strong in that 6 ½-furlong race and looked like a horse that will benefit from this added distance. The runner-up behind Epic Summer was the Chad Brown-trained Schoolyardsuperman, who returned to break his maiden in his next start. The main threat will come from #1 Commandment from the barn of Brad Cox with Irad Ortiz Jr. aboard. He graduated last time in his second career start in a seven-furlong race at Churchill Downs and should get a perfect pace setup in this spot as a horse with stalking ability in a race loaded with speedy horses and horses trying to stretch out.

The Play: Bet on #3 Epic Summer to win and play him in an exacta box along with #1 Commandment.