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. 10

This Saturday’s featured races at Gulfstream Park are a pair of remnants from the track’s old Sunshine Millions program that showcased Florida- and California-breds. Now with purses of $75,000 apiece and restricted to Florida-bred racehorses, the Sunshine Classic Stakes and the Sunshine Filly and Mare Turf Stakes headline Saturday’s 11-race card at Gulfstream as the final two races on the card.

Gulfstream Park, Race 10, $75,000 Sunshine Classic Stakes, post time 4:50 p.m. ET

The Sunshine Classic Stakes has drawn a field of six Florida-breds set to race 1 1/16 miles on the main track. The distance of this race is key because it was the deciding factor between #4 Lure Him In and #5 Lightning Tones last time when Lure Him In turned the tables on Lightning Tones, who had finished ahead of him the previous time at a mile. Lure Him In finished second in that $70,000 handicap race after battling for the lead much of the way and earned the highest last-race Beyer Speed Figure in this field. He owns 11 lifetime wins, including six career wins at Gulfstream Park with a local win at this distance in June 2025. The horse to fear in this field is #6 Neoequos, who is making his 4-year-old debut coming off a colorful 3-year-old campaign in which he ran third in both the Grade 2 Coolmore Fountain of Youth Stakes and the Grade 1 Curlin Florida Derby Presented by Hill 'n' Dale Farms at Xalapa on this track. He finished 2025 racing in sprint stakes with some degree of success, so now the question is whether or not he will improve stretching back out around two turns. Nobody would be surprised if the answer is yes for Gulfstream’s leading trainer Saffie Joseph Jr.

The Play: Bet on #4 Lure Him In to win and play him in an exacta box along with #6 Neoequos.

Gulfstream Park, Race 11, $75,000 Sunshine Filly and Mare Turf Stakes, post time 5:20 p.m. ET

The Sunshine Filly and Mare Turf Stakes has drawn a highly competitive 11-horse field ready to roll going one mile on the turf. #6 Spirited Boss comes off a very good 3-year-old campaign in 2025 during which she won four times in six outings, including a turf stakes win at Gulfstream. She missed much of the second half of 2025, but returned to action looking as good as ever in late December with a win in her first-off-the-layoff prep race at Tampa Bay Downs. Now, she’ll be cranked up and sitting on a big effort with Irad Ortiz Jr. picking up the mount. Looming with a big chance to win or at least hit the board is #7 Ashima, who is the defending winner of this race from last year. She’s a horse that has been remarkably consistent over the course of the last 14 months with eight wins, two seconds, and a third in her last 11 races. She comes off a Churchill Downs turf win in her last start and can be counted on for yet another strong effort. #10 Souper Zonda is another of the contenders in this race with a chance to make some noise. She’s been solid in each of her three career turf starts for trainer Mark Casse, who is off to a blazing-hot start this season at Gulfstream with 13 wins already for a 28% win rate. Souper Zonda was a big longshot last time in the $125,000 Tropical Park Oaks but ran a very competitive race for fourth in a 12-horse field despite tiring a bit in the late stages at 1 1/16 miles. She’ll be better in this one-mile assignment, and that makes her dangerous, at least for the trifectas.

The Play: Bet on #6 Spirited Boss to win and play her in exacta and trifecta boxes along with #7 Ashima and #10 Souper Zonda.