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.

Gulfstream Park hosts one of its biggest days of the season this Saturday with the Grade 2 Coolmore Fountain of Youth Stakes headlining a 14-race program with a total of nine stakes. For this weekend’s winners, let’s take a look at the featured Fountain of Youth as well as one of the best betting races on the undercard, the Mac Diarmida Stakes Presented by FanDuel TV. If we can finish strong in these final two races on the card, we should wrap up a very good Saturday at the south Florida track. Best of luck and enjoy the races.

Saturday, Feb. 28

Gulfstream Park, Race 13, $200,000 Mac Diarmida Stakes Presented by FanDuel TV, post time 5:36 p.m. ET

A lot of heavy favorites will be showcased throughout Saturday’s stakes program at Gulfstream Park before we get to the final two races of the day which seem like wide-open races with several contenders. The Grade 2 Mac Diarmida Stakes has drawn a good field of 10 turf horses prepared to race 1 3/8 miles on the grass and you can make a legitimate case for various horses in the field to win. The horse to beat will be #6 Anegada with jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. picking up the mount for trainer Mike Maker. Anegada comes in with wins in three of his last four races including a victory in the $200,000 John B. Connelly Turf Cup Stakes in his 4-year-old debut. The Connelly notably was Anegada’s first foray into a distance turf race longer than 1 1/8 miles and he showed a new dimension when passing the test with a career high Beyer Speed Figure. Ortiz will have Anegada coming from off the pace and he’ll be in better striking position to make his late run than the deeper closers and will get the first and best run on the leaders in the stretch. Speaking of those leaders, the most dangerous front runner in the race will be #3 Layabout, a horse that is in career-best form with two straight wins to boost his record on the Gulfstream turf course to four wins and a second in five races to date. Layabout also passed the long-distance test in his last race when he went wire-to-wire to win the Grade 3 William L. McKnight Stakes Presented by Woodford Reserve Bourbon, and he’s a threat to get the lead again in this spot and go all the way. The horse perhaps in the closest pursuit of Layabout could be #2 Without, who finished second off a 10-month layoff in his U.S. debut last time for trainer Graham Motion. Motion is currently enjoying a strong 26% meet at Gulfstream this season. He needed that last race but all systems will be “go” here in the second start off the layoff.

The Play: Bet on #6 Anegada (9-2) to win and play him in exacta and trifecta boxes along with #2 Without (5-2), and #3 Layabout (8-1).

Gulfstream Park, Race 14, $425,000 Coolmore Fountain of Youth Stakes, post time 6:11 p.m. ET

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The Grade 2 Fountain of Youth Stakes has drawn a good field of 3-year-olds set to go 1 1/16 miles on the road to the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve. The race offers a purse of $425,000 in addition to a lot of Derby qualifying points to the top finishers. #6 Chief Wallabee gets a big test in this race and we’ll learn a lot about his ability on Saturday. All signs point in the right direction so far for the Bill Mott trainee who won his maiden in his first career outing last time going seven furlongs over a field that included runner-up The Puma, who was 9 ¼ lengths ahead of the third-place horse and has since come back to run third in the Sam F. Davis Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs. The sky appears to be the limit for Chief Wallabee, let’s see if he’s up to the task. One horse we know is up to the task in this field is Grade 1 winner #7 Napoleon Solo who won last fall’s Champagne Stakes going one mile at Aqueduct but has not been seen since. The only question for him is whether or not he’ll be ready for his first two-turn assignment in his first race back from nearly a five-month layoff. It would be no surprise if he were ready to roll, but it also would be no surprise if he needed a race. One of the top contenders in this race who has gotten a prep race under his belt is #5 Bravaro for Gulfstream’s leading trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. (who also trains the speedy stretching-out sprinter #10 Solitude Dude). Solitude Dude may not win but certainly could hurt the chances of a potential front runner like Napoleon Solo. Bravaro, meanwhile, is a New York-bred stakes winner that ran second to Nearly in the Grade 3 Holy Bull Stakes last time when making his 3-year-old debut and potentially could take another good step forward again on Saturday.

The Play: Bet on #6 Chief Wallabee (9-2) to win and play him in exacta and trifecta boxes along with #5 Bravaro (8-1) and #7 Napoleon Solo (7-2). You can also play late daily doubles combining your picks from races 13 and 14.