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.

Churchill Downs hosts the 28^th running of the Claiming Crown this Saturday featuring nine races worth combined purses of $1.2 million on the day’s 12-race program. The Claiming Crown is open to horses that have been entered in claiming races this past year and is designed to shine a light on the often-overlooked blue-collar horses in the sport. For handicappers, what it means is an excellent betting card loaded with big fields and good quality racing and wagering. For this weekend’s winners, let’s take a look at a couple of the best bets of this Saturday’s Claiming Crown at Churchill Downs. It’s a great day, don’t miss it.

Saturday, Nov. 14

Churchill Downs, Race 4, $100,000 Claiming Crown Ready’s Rocket Express, post time 2:28 p.m. ET

The Ready’s Rocket has drawn a 10-horse field ready to go six furlongs, and I believe a horse like #4 Kerness K perfectly exemplifies what the Claiming Crown should be all about. Kerness K is not well-known to many racing fans, but he definitely should be since he comes into this race on an 11-race winning streak that happened mostly out of the national spotlight at places like Laurel Park, Delaware Park, Colonial Downs, and Parx Racing. This will be a tougher test than usual for Kerness K, but he is an expert at finding ways to win, and this is a chance to bet money on him at better odds than you can usually get. He is a closer and there seems to be plenty of speed entered in this race to set up his late run. Three of the horses in this race exit a 6 ½-furlong starter allowance race at Keeneland last month won by #1 Swirvin, who rushed to the early lead and could not be caught as #2 Dancin for Gold and #5 Lord Majesty gave chase with no excuses. Swirvin was claimed by trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. this year for $6,250 and he’s already 2-for-2 for the new barn with two wire-to-wire wins. He has speed and the rail post, and will be tough to catch at six furlongs. Let’s see if Kerness K can do it. If Swirvin can’t go all the way and if Kerness K can’t catch up, the other horse in the field with a legit chance to get the job done is #7 Delta Tau Chi, a horse that has had a good season in six-furlong races at Horseshoe Indianapolis and has totaled nine exacta finishes in 10 races to far this year including six wins. His earnings are still just about only half of what Kerness K has made this year, but Delta Tau Chi is speedy enough to make the lead yet versatile enough to rate a little bit if unable to establish the front end, and that makes him a dangerous contender.

The Play: Bet on #4 Kerness K (3-1) to win and play him in exacta and trifecta boxes along with #1 Swirvin (9-2) and #7 Delta Tau Chi (6-1).

Churchill Downs, Race 7, $100,000 Claiming Crown Rapid Transit, post time 3:55 p.m. ET

The Rapid Transit has drawn a full field set to compete at 1 1/16 miles on the main track and the various entrants in the race have raced at venues all over the country. The best way to look for the top contenders is to find the horses with the best two-turn dirt results this year, and based on that it could come down to #3 Cowboy Mike and #4 Metatron’s Muse. Cowboy Mike was claimed for just $8,000 at Del Mar and comes in off of back-to-back big wins, also including an 8 ½-length score for the current connections last time at Parx. Metatron’s Muse exits a subpar effort in his last race for a different trainer but before that had won three straight races at Saratoga and Aqueduct, and he has now been claimed out of six consecutive races. Cowboy Mike is in career-best form and will be on or close to the pace, while Metatron’s Muse will be rallying from behind and has a good chance at solid improvement in his first race for trainer Norm Casse with Junior Alvarado aboard for the mount. Metatron’s Muse will offer value odds at 10-1 on the morning line, so let’s pick him to win and use Cowboy Mike in the exactas. Finally, we should also include #10 Freedom Road in our bets with Jose Ortiz picking up the mount. He is a 15-time career winner that has hit the exacta in both prior career outings at Churchill Downs who currently is in excellent form with four straight exacta finishes including a stakes race last time.

The Play: Bet on #4 Metatron’s Muse (10-1) to win and play him in exacta and trifecta boxes along with #3 Cowboy Mike (3-1) and #10 Freedom Road (9-2).