MediaWelcome 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.

This Saturday is the day of racing and wagering that horse playing aficionados anxiously await all year long. It’s Breeders’ Cup Championship Saturday! Del Mar will play host for the second year in a row and has a spectacular 12-race card in store including nine Breeders’ Cup main events. The feature race will be the $7 million Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic, and if you want to see my picks for that race, please click here to visit ABR’s Trifecta Picks for the 2025 Breeders’ Cup Classic article. Besides the Classic, there are another eight great races to choose from for this edition of Weekend Winners, and I have chosen to focus on the Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff and the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile as my other big bets on Championship Saturday. Good luck and enjoy the best that horse racing has to offer in the 2025 Breeders’ Cup from Del Mar.

Del Mar, Race 7, $2,000,000 Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff, post time 5:01 p.m. ET

A solid field fillies and mares has been assembled for the 2025 Breeders’ Cup Distaff set to go 1 1/8 miles on the Del Mar main track (reduced from 13 to 12 with the Oct. 30 scratch of Scottish Lassie). There appears to be several contenders in the field, but three challengers seem to stand out above the rest as the horses to beat in exactas and trifectas. Let’s start with the versatile and consistent #1 Nitrogen who was no worse than second in all eight outings in 2025 with six wins including Saratoga’s Grade 1 Alabama Stakes Presented by Keeneland Sales after she was moved from turf to dirt. Nitrogen enters off a narrow loss to #7 Gin Gin in the Juddmonte Spinster Stakes who capitalized on getting the lead that day at Keeneland, but the pace set-up of the Distaff should favor the up-close stalking style of Nitrogen instead. Her speed figures are a touch low, but she’s a 3-year-old and is perhaps ready to peak on Saturday. I will always side with a horse with a fall prep race in the Breeders’ Cup over horses that last raced over the summer. One horse in the Distaff that’s definitely not light on speed figures is morning-line favorite #8 Seismic Beauty who comes in off a pair of Earth-shaking southern California wins in the Grade 2 Santa Margarita Stakes and in Del Mar’s Grade 1 Clement L. Hirsch Stakes Presented by Oak Tree Racing Association where she led wire-to-wire and earned high speed figures both times. She has yet to be seriously challenged for the lead during her current three-race winning streak, but she will throw down the gauntlet for trainer Bob Baffert and dare any of her rivals to do so on Saturday. Let’s see if anyone is up to the challenge. Finally, one mare in the field that seems to be habitually underrated is #12 Dorth Vader, who unfortunately drew a wide post but nevertheless also has the ability to win this race. Dorth Vader won the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps Stakes Presented by Ford in June but perhaps her best career performance came last time in defeat when she battled Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna down to the wire in thrilling fashion at this distance in Saratoga’s Grade 1 Personal Ensign Stakes.

The Play: Bet on #1 Nitrogen (4-1) to win and play her in exacta and trifecta boxes with #8 Seismic Beauty (9-5) and #12 Dorth Vader (5-1).

Del Mar, Race 11, $1,000,000 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, post time 7:45 p.m. ET

Nysos trains at Del Mar. (Eclipse Sportswire)

This is one of the headline match-ups of Breeders’ Cup weekend that fans are most looking forward to. While the payoff on this race may not be through the roof, the Breeders’ Cup is all about cashing tickets because the fields are large and full of contenders and the returns are always good even when you cash in on favorites. The headline battle I’m referring to in this race is between the immensely talented Bob Baffert trainee #3 Nysos and the Dirt Mile defending champion #6 Full Serrano. Let’s hope the race can possibly live up to expectations. Nysos has won five of six lifetime races and is a neck away from being undefeated in his career with the only loss coming to Mindframe when returning from a year layoff in the Grade 1 Churchill Downs Stakes Presented by Ford this May. Since then, he’s rattled off back-to-back big wins with big speed figures in the seven-furlong Grade 3 Triple Bend Stakes and in Del Mar’s 1 1/16-mile Grade 2 San Diego Handicap. Nysos was the morning-line favorite in the Pacific Classic Stakes before being scratched the morning of the race with a bruised hoof, and the only reason he appears vulnerable here in a seemingly ideal spot is because he enters without a prep race since last seen back on July 26. In addition to his layoff, there is one other potential hurdle standing in the way of Nysos on Saturday, and that roadblock is named Full Serrano. The 2024 Dirt Mile winner at Del Mar is back to defend his crown and clearly has the ability to get it done. Full Serrano ran his Del Mar record up to three wins and a second in four career outings on this racetrack in his first race of 2025, and his only local defeat remains his runner-up finish in the 2024 edition of the Pacific Classic. He got a good fall prep race under his belt when second to Nevada Beach in the Grade 1 Goodwood Stakes at Santa Anita Park at the distance of 1 1/8 miles, and will benefit from this return to his favorite track and shorter distance in order to score his second straight Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile victory.

The Play: Bet on #6 Full Serrano (7-2) to win and play him in a strong exacta box with #3 Nysos (8-5).