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.

The 2026 Saratoga season churns along this weekend with more great summer racing and wagering action from The Spa. For this weekend’s winners, let’s take a look at the two stakes races from this Saturday’s 12-race program. We can cash some tickets and end the day on a winning high note. Best of luck and enjoy the races.

Saturday, Aug. 13

Saratoga, Race 9, $750,000 Christophe Clement Turf Stakes, post time 5:06 p.m. ET

Saturday’s feature race is the Grade 1 Christophe Clement Turf, formerly known as the Sword Dancer Stakes. It’s a “Win and You’re In” prep for the Longines Breeders’ Cup Turf. A field of seven has been assembled to run 1 ½ miles and before we get into the picks, let’s just say it will be easy to root for #2 Tawny Port in this race, who is trained by Christophe’s son, Miguel Clement. In order to win, however, Tawny Port will need to turn the tables on #3 Ole Crazy Bone, who beat him decisively when the two met in last fall’s Kentucky Turf Cup Invitational at Kentucky Downs. Since then, Ole Crazy Bone took some time off but has since returned from the sidelines and got a win in Saratoga’s Grade 2 Bowling Green Stakes Presented by Emerald Ecovations last time out after leading all the way against some of these same horses. Ole Crazy Bone is versatile enough go to the lead or stalk the pace, has not run a bad race since the spring of 2025, owns strong speed figures, and has an affinity for this 1 ½-mile distance. Among the Americans in this field, he’s the horse to beat. There’s also a Chad Brown-trained runner in the field, #4 Program Trading, and that horse can’t be overlooked either, at least for the exactas and trifectas. He is a Grade 1 winner from earlier in his career who has been hot the comeback trail lately with two straight stakes wins at Monmouth Park including an easy win in the Grade 2 United Nations Stakes. He’s never been a true 1 ½-mile horse, but you can’t count him out for these connections with Flavien Prat aboard. Finally, the real-deal X-factor in the field is the foreign invader, #1 Ancient Egypt, who arrives in legitimate top-level form with back-to-back near-miss second-place finishes, first at Royal Ascot and then in a Group 1 race at Longchamp. He likes the 1 ½-mile distance, thrives on firm turf, and brings his regular rider with him. If he can successfully translate his good recent form to Saratoga, the rest of this field could be in deep trouble.

The Play: Bet on #1 Ancient Egypt (5-1) to win and play him in exacta and trifecta boxes along with #3 Ole Crazy Bone (4-1) and #4 Program Trading (7-2). Start a turf-centric daily double with Ancient Egypt as well.

Saratoga, Race 10, $200,000 Galway Stakes, post time 5:44 p.m. ET

Oscar's Encore (Eclipse Sportswire)

The Galway Stakes has drawn a quality field of eight 3-year-old filles set to sprint 5 ½ furlongs on the turf. This should be a good betting race, especially if we can beat the favorites with #3 Oscar’s Encore, who is 6-1 on the morning line but has every right to be able to win this race. She has a 2-for-2 career record in 5 ½-furlong turf sprints, both coming at Saratoga, including a win in her first race of the year after a nine-month layoff. Leading rider Jose Ortiz is aboard for high-percentage trainer Joe Sharp, and as good as Oscar’s Encore looked last time, she should be even better here in the second race back after the long layoff. #5 Cadenza has been trying to dance every dance this season in New York’s turf sprint stakes for 3-year-old fillies, and she has done a pretty good job so far with a stakes win at Aqueduct and back-to-back in-the-money finishes more recently at Saratoga. She didn’t seem to care for the yielding turf condition last time when third behind Cy Fair in the Grade 3 Coronation Cup Stakes, but should do a lot better vs. these in a firm course. #8 Mythical is trying her luck in a turf sprint for the first time after posting seven wins so far from 11 career races on the dirt including a win in last year’s Grade 3 Adirondack Stakes at Saratoga. No guarantees with the surface switch, but if she’s close to as good on the grass as she is on the dirt, she’ll have a chance to win or finish in the money.

The Play: Bet on #3 Oscar’s Encore (6-1) to win and play her in exacta and trifecta boxes with #5 Cadenza (7-2), and #8 Mythical (9-2). Use her with Ancient Egypt in the double.