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.

Churchill Downs is up and running again and the first Saturday of the September meet features an 11-race program containing five stakes races. For this edition of Weekend Winners, let’s investigate what’s happening under the Twin Spires and try to pick the winners of two of the top races on the card, the Grade 3 Iroquois Stakes and the Open Mind Stakes. Both of these races will offer opportunities for handicappers to beat the favorites and make some real money. Have a great day of racing this Saturday at Churchill Downs. Best of luck!

Churchill Downs, Race 8, $300,000 Iroquois Stakes, post time 4:26 p.m. ET

The Grade 3 Iroquois Stakes has drawn a 10-horse field of 2-year-olds set to go one mile in the first official race on the Road to the 2026 Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve. There’s a big favorite in the race with #7 Comport coming in off a win last time in the $200,000 Ellis Park Juvenile Stakes. That victory makes him a strong contender in this race, and he should be included in all exactas and trifectas. There also seems to be at least a couple horses in the field with legitimate upset chances, however, including #8 Vost, a first-out winner last time who didn’t get a high speed figure but did score an eye-catching win when coming from last in an 11-horse field after a bad start from the rail going seven furlongs. He gets off the rail for high percentage connections and should be capable of a surprise here at one mile. Vost is worth a win bet at 12-1 odds on the morning line. Another horse with a shot is #1 Nothing Personal, who scored a big seven-furlong maiden win at Colonial Downs in his first start. He finished 8 ¾ lengths ahead of runner-up Antrax in that maiden race and Antrax came back to win his next start and then finished fourth in Colonial’s Exacta Systems Rosie’s Stakes.

The Play: Bet on #8 Vost (12-1) to win and play him in exacta and trifecta boxes with #1 Nothing Personal (8-1) and #7 Comport (6-5).

Churchill Downs, Race 9, $300,000 Open Mind Stakes, post time 4:58 p.m. ET

The Open Mind Stakes for fillies and mares going 6 ½ furlongs on the main track has only drawn a field of six but also offers bettors the opportunity to catch an upset. #5 Mink’s Palace is a four-time winner at Churchill Downs who has trouble when she steps up against graded stakes competition but is always dangerous in this kind of spot, just as she was this spring when she won Churchill’s similar $200,000 Roxelana Stakes. Her career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 90 was earned in a Churchill sprint and it stacks up well against the competition in this race. Mink’s Palace exits a solid second in the $150,000 Twin Bridges Stakes at Ellis Park and jockey Luis Saez, who was aboard for both the Roxelana victory and for the career-high speed figure, picks up the mount again on Saturday. Elsewhere in the field it’s slim pickings outside of the two favorites. #6 Impel is coming off back-to-back wins at this mile distance including a win in the $200,000 Groupie Doll Stakes at Ellis Park for trainer Brad Cox. Morning-line favorite #4 Positano Sunset is a Grade 1 winner of this spring’s Resolute Racing Madison Stakes at Keeneland, but she has been on the sidelines for four months and looks potentially questionable after her flop last time in the Derby City Distaff Stakes Presented by Kendall-Jackson Winery back on May 3 at this track.

The Play: Bet on #5 Mink’s Palace (8-1) to win and play her in exacta and trifecta boxes with #4 Positano Sunset (2-1) and #6 Impel (5-2).