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.

We’re starting to move into the meat and potatoes part of the Saratoga summer meet now and the action is heating up this weekend at The Spa with two big stakes races carded on Saturday’s 12-race program. For this weekend’s winners, let’s delve into handicapping Saturday’s graded stakes events at Saratoga. If we can cash-in on these two races late in the afternoon, we should be on our way to a profitable day at The Spa. Best of luck and enjoy the races.

Saturday, July 25

Saratoga, Race 9, $400,000 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Stakes, post time 5:07 p.m. ET

The Grade 2 Vanderbilt Stakes has drawn a very good eight-horse field set to go six furlongs for a purse of $400,000. The horse to beat will be #4 Just Beat the Odds, who will be looking to live up to his name at 9-2 on the morning line. He hasn’t finished off the board in his last 10 starts dating back three years, and he developed into a top-class sprinter late in 2025 with the first graded stakes win of his career coming in December in Aqueduct’s Grade 3 Elite Power Stakes. Just Beat the Odds began 2026 with a trip to Saudi Arabia where a big effort resulted in a second-place finish among a 13-horse field in the $2 million Riyadh Dirt Sprint. Perhaps he needed a reset following his trip to the Middle East when third last time in a $100,000 stakes at Delaware Park, but now all systems should be “go” this Saturday. The Vanderbilt favorite is #8 Built based on his three triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures in his last four races which make him a must-use in exactas and trifectas. He has won three of his five dirt races since being converted to a sprinter at the end of 2025. He exits a solid runner-up finish in the Grade 3 Bango Stakes at Churchill Downs. The horse in this race that can add some value to your tickets is #6 Hymn, who faced an arguably tougher field than Built did last time when he romped in the $175,000 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash Stakes at Laurel Park. Hymn is in career-best form now with three straight wins and cannot be overlooked as the fourth-choice in the odds at 5-1 on the morning line.

The Play: Bet on #4 Just Beat the Odds (9-2) to win and play him in exacta and trifecta boxes along with #6 Hymn (5-1) and #8 Built (8-5).

Saratoga, Race 10, $500,000 Coaching Club American Oaks, post time 5:45 p.m. ET

Counting Stars (Eclipse Sportswire)

The favorites look strong in a nine-horse field of 3-year-old fillies in the Grade 1 CCA Oaks going 1 1/8 miles, which is the same distance as this spring’s Grade 1 Longines Kentucky Oaks won by #6 Always a Runner and last month’s Grade 1 DraftKings Acorn Stakes at Saratoga won by #1 Counting Stars. Now, the CCA Oaks will serve as the Counting Stars versus Always a Runner rubber match. The edge Saturday goes to Counting Stars, who was dynamite in the more recent Acorn, posting a 3 ¾-length win over this same track and distance. Always a Runner settled for second with no apparent excuse. Counting Stars has a bit more tactical speed than Always a Runner, and that should work to her advantage on this racetrack. Let’s box the favorites in exactas and hope for a classic showdown in the stretch. There are other horses in this race with a chance, too, so let’s use a pair of those contenders in the trifectas underneath Counting Stars. #8 Zany was the beaten favorite in the Kentucky Oaks and now makes her first start since that May 1 sixth-place finish. Prior to the Kentucky Oaks, she had a tremendous start to her career with wins in Aqueduct’s Grade 2 Demoiselle Stakes, a win in the Suncoast Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs, and a second in the Grade 1 Central Bank Ashland Stakes at Keeneland. Regular rider Irad Ortiz Jr. is off to ride Counting Stars, but John Velazquez picks up the mount with trainer Todd Pletcher adding blinkers for the first time. The other interesting contender in the field is #7 Directive for trainer Chad Brown, who also trains Always a Runner. Directive has won twice in a row and comes off a 1 1/8-mile allowance optional claiming win at Saratoga. She gets Flavien Prat aboard and owns good early speed to complement the late-running style of Always a Runner.

The Play: Bet on #1 Counting Stars (2-1) to win and play her in an exacta box with #6 Always a Runner (9-5). Key #1 Counting Stars on top in trifectas over the trio of #6 Always a Runner, #7 Directive (6-1), and #8 Zany (9-2).