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.

Aqueduct, Race 6, $125,000 Woodhaven Stakes, post time 3:50 p.m. ET

Turf racing season is finally returning to New York, and Saturday’s feature has drawn a very competitive seven-horse field of 3-year-olds set to race one-mile on the Aqueduct grass course. No horse is less that 3-1 or more than 6-1 odds on the morning line. It’s a turf stakes in New York, so you can’t be too surprised that the race has drawn runners from top turf trainers like Chad Brown and Christophe Clement. Those will be the horses to beat. #4 Revolutionnaire from the Clement barn seems to have the most upside in what will be his second start since arriving from France and his second start back from a six-month layoff. He finished a solid third last time when needing a race in the $100,000 Columbia Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs where he faced a tough assignment in a race won by Zulu Kingdom, a multiple graded stakes winner that was among the favorites in last fall’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf. With the benefit of that return race in his back pocket, Revolutionnaire should now be ready to shine in his second race off the layoff. Brown also will have a say in the outcome of this race, but his challenger, #1 Septarian, is a bit more of an X-factor than Revolutionnaire. Septarian will be making his lifetime turf debut here after four dirt races to begin his career. He couldn’t threaten last time in the Grade 2 Fasig-Tipton Risen Star Stakes but before that had finished a reasonable third in Gulfstream Park’s $150,000 Mucho Macho Man Stakes at this one-mile distance. It would come as no surprise to see a runner from the Brown barn show considerable improvement when switched to the grass. Barclay Tagg trainee #6 Tiz Dashing is another serious contender in this spot you should include on your tickets. He has raced exclusively on turf in his four-race career so far including the maiden win and a near-miss second by a head in last fall’s $150,000 Awad Stakes on this turf course. He finished a promising third last time in his second start as a 3-year-old with added blinkers and should be a factor in this spot with a similar effort.

The Play: Bet on #4 Revolutionnaire (5-1) to win and play him in exacta and trifecta boxes with #1 Septarian (3-1) and #6 Tiz Dashing (4-1).

Churchill Downs, Race 9, $200,000 Roxelana Stakes Presented by LG&E and KU, post time 9:40 p.m. ET

A field of eight fillies and mares is set to contest Churchill Downs’ opening-night feature at six furlongs on the main track. #6 Harbor Springs appeared to come into her own late last year with a big win here at Churchill and then validated that good form with another sharp win last time with an even higher speed figure at Fair Grounds. Irad Ortiz Jr. gets the mount, and she should keep winning if she shows up with another similar effort. #1 Non Violence struck out in a two-race turf experiment to begin this year but he exploded for an 8 ¼-length stakes win at Evangeline Downs last time when switched back to the dirt. She cuts back this sprint, but she’s been successful before at this distance and was a winner of her only career start so far at Churchill Downs. Finally, while #2 Sandy Bottom and #7 Girls Weekend fight each other up on a hot pace, #5 Miuccia should benefit from getting a perfect close-up stalking trip behind the leaders. She was graded stakes-placed at Saratoga last year and fits in this spot based on her best efforts.

The Play: Bet on #6 Harbor Springs (3-1) to win and play her in exacta and trifecta boxes with #1 Non Violence (9-2) and #5 Miuccia (8-1).