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, Jan. 24

One of the biggest and best days of the winter racing season arrives to Gulfstream Park this Saturday with Pegasus World Cup day, an afternoon of eight stakes races headlined by the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes. For my picks on the much-anticipated feature race, please visit America’s Best Racing’s separate Pegasus trifecta handicapping article compiled by ABR’s editorial staff. For this weekend’s winners, let’s take a closer look at the two biggest races on the undercard, including the Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational and the Pegasus World Cup Filly and Mare Turf Stakes presented by TAA. If we can pick the winners of these two great races, we can build bankroll that can be rolled over into a big score on the Pegasus World Cup. Enjoy the best of winter racing this Saturday at Gulfstream Park. Good luck!

Gulfstream Park, Race 10, $500,000 Pegasus World Cup Filly and Mare Turf Invitational Stakes presented by TAA, 3:45 p.m. ET

The Grade 2 Pegasus Fully and Mare Turf has drawn a competitive full field set to run 1 1/16 miles. Let’s go out on a limb and narrow this down to just the two top contenders, starting with #8 Proctor Street, who will make a terrific win bet at or near the morning-line odds of 12-1. She has yet to ever run in a graded stakes race, but she seems ready, willing, and able to excel in this spot for trainer Brendan Walsh with Tyler Gaffalione aboard. Gaffalione was aboard both of Proctor Street’s two recent impressive races, which were off-the-pace scores at Keeneland and Churchill Downs, where she prevailed in the $289,000 Cardinal Stakes, knocking off #14 Awesome Czech by three-quarters of a length. No horse in this field has as much upside or is on such an obvious upward trajectory as Proctor Street, who seems to be sitting on the verge of a career breakout race. The other top contender in this field is #7 Whiskey Decision from the barn of trainer Chad Brown with Flavien Prat aboard. Whiskey Decision has a similar stalking running style as Proctor Street and this race could come down to the two of them getting to the front in the stretch and battling to the finish line. Whiskey Decision is a winner of two of her three outings since joining Brown’s barn in 2025, including authoritative wins in her last outing in Aqueduct’s Athenia Stakes in September and Monmouth Park’s Grade 3 Eatontown Stakes, which she won last June when fresh off a similar type of layoff. Note: If Awesome Czech draws into this field from the also-eligible list, go ahead and play trifectas including her.

The Play: Bet on #8 Proctor Street (12-1) to win and play her in an exacta box with #7 Whiskey Decision (9-2). Add a three-horse trifecta box if #14 Awesome Czech (20-1) gets into the race.

Gulfstream Park, Race 12, $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational, 4:54 p.m. ET

Fort Washington (Coady Media)

Saturday’s undercard feature race at Gulfstream Park is the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Turf, which has drawn a wide-open full field ready to compete at 1 1/8 miles for a million bucks. You might have to turn a page or two in your program or Daily Racing Form to get to the pick in the race, but make sure you don’t overlook #12 Fort Washington on the far outside. Fort Washington did not handle the distance of 1 ½ miles at Kentucky Downs when last seen back in September, but don’t be fooled by that result because his form at shorter route distances has been more than good enough to win this Saturday. He won the Grade 1 Arlington Million and the Grade 3 Dinner Party Stakes last year, in addition to winning the Grade 3 Canadian Turf Stakes with a last-to-first rally on the Gulfstream turf course. His Beyer Speed Figures routinely land in the 95-99 range when he’s on his best game, and that makes him the horse to beat. The main concern for Fort Washington and the other closers in this field will be whether or not anyone runs with the speedy #8 Cabo Spirit up front. Cabo Spirit will be pushed to his limit at this 1 1/8-mile distance, but he can do it if allowed to control the pace as he did in his last outing when he won Santa Anita Park’s Grade 3 San Gabriel Stakes in wire-to-wire fashion. Finally, don’t forget to include the very logical #10 Cugino on your exacta and trifecta tickets. Cugino rarely runs a bad race and has finished in the exacta in six of his last seven races, including wins in Monmouth Park’s Red Bank Stakes and in the Grade 2 Red Smith Stakes at Aqueduct.

The Play: Bet on #12 Forst Washington (10-1) to win and play him in exacta and trifecta boxes along with #8 Cabo Spirit (8-1) and #10 Cugino (7-2).