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.

California racing ramps up at Santa Anita Park this weekend with a big Saturday program that features five graded stakes races. For this weekend’s winners, let’s go west in search of some solid exacta and trifecta plays in some of the best races of the day. If we can cash in on the Eddie D Stakes and the John Henry Turf Championship Stakes, we will be well on our way to a big Saturday at Santa Anita. Best of luck and enjoy the races.

Saturday, Sept. 26

Santa Anita Park, Race 5, $200,000 Eddie D Stakes, post time 6:10 p.m. ET

A nine-horse field has been assembled for the Grade 2 Eddie D. Stakes going 6 ½ furlongs on Santa Anita’s downhill turf course. Recent form from Del Mar turf sprints often doesn’t translate to wins down the hill at Santa Anita, so let’s concentrate on horses’ lifetime form on this particular course to try to find our best bets. #1 Sumter exits a loss at Del Mar but looks way better when you just consider his form at Santa Anita, which includes a second-place near-miss by a nose in June’s Grade 3 Daytona Stakes, a win in March’s Grade 3 San Simeon Stakes, and back-to-back second-place finishes in the 2024-25 Joe Hernandez Stakes. He’s consistently good on this downhill course, making him the horse to beat. Another horse in the field who likes Santa Anita much better than Del Mar is #3 Freedom’s Not Free, who is 6-1 on the morning line thanks to a pair of Del Mar losses. When last seen at Santa Anita, however, he was the winner of the Daytona Stakes where he nailed Sumter in the final jump with jockey Juan Hernandez in the saddle. Hernandez will get back aboard Saturday. His other prior effort on the downhill course was also good and his overall career record on the Santa Anita grass currently stands at four wins and a third in five lifetime starts. There are plenty of other live horses in this field, but let’s round-out our exactas and trifectas with #7 Pure Madness, who has yet to ever finish out of the exacta in seven career outings so far in races on both turf and dirt going long and short. It doesn’t seem that trainer Brian Koriner knows what kind of horse Pure Madness is going to be, but it sure does seem from the past performances that the horse is every bit as good on the turf as he is on the dirt, and every bit as good going short as he is going long.

The Play: Bet on #1 Sumter (6-1) to win and play him in exacta and trifecta boxes along with #3 Freedom’s Not Free (6-1) and #7 Pure Madness (3-1).

Santa Anita Park, Race 7, $200,000 John Henry Turf Championship Stakes, post time 7:10 p.m. ET

Mondego (BENOIT photo)

The Grade 2 John Henry Turf Championship has drawn a good field of eight ready to race 1 ¼ miles on the Santa Anita turf. Five of the eight horses are exiting the Grade 2 Del Mar Handicap Presented by Japan Racing Association, and even though #1 Mondego finished fifth, he lost the race by a total of only one length after being out-finished late at that race’s longer 1 3/8-mile distance. Today’s small cutback to 1 ¼ miles favors him, so let’s bet on Mondego to turn the tables and get some revenge on Saturday. He seems to like Santa Anita a lot better than Del Mar, and he already has established himself as a bit of a specialist at this distance so far this year with wins in both May’s Grade 2 Charles Wittingham Stakes Presented by FanDuel TV and February’s Grade 3 San Marcos Stakes – both at 1 ¼ miles. The even-money favorite in the race is #7 Atitlan, and while he’s not worth a win bet at that price, he does warrant inclusion in the exactas and trifectas based on his solid speed figures and his pair of solid recent efforts at Del Mar as he continues his comeback from nearly a year layoff. He was the winner of the 2025 Charles Wittingham Stakes going 1 ¼ miles on this turf course and if he can return to that form, he’ll have a chance on Saturday. #2 Sinsel is listed at 15-1 odds on the morning line and he can really bump up the value of our exactas and trifectas based on expected improvement in what will be his second start off the layoff and second start in the U.S. upon his arrival from Brazil, where he had been a multiple stakes winner going long on the grass. Sinsel finished tenth in the Grade 2 Del Mar Mile Stakes last time, but he needed that outing after a year layoff, he lost that race but only four lengths, and the one-mile distance there was too short for him. He’ll move up – potentially way up – in this second start off the long layoff with the stretchout to a much more suitable distance.

The Play: Bet on #1 Mondego (3-1) to win and play him in exacta and trifecta boxes along with #2 Sinsel (15-1) and #7 Atitlan (1-1).