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, Oct. 24

Saturday is Empire Showcase Day at Belmont Park, one of the year’s great days of racing and wagering in New York with state-breds taking center stage for the running of 10 stakes races. For this weekend’s blog, let’s take a closer look at two of the best races of Empire Showcase Day, including the richest race of the year for New York-breds, the Empire Classic in Race 10. Good luck this Saturday at Belmont Park!

Belmont Park, Race 8, $200,000 Hudson Stakes, 3:56 p.m. ET

The Hudson Stakes has drawn a nine-horse field of New York-bred sprinters set to go 6 ½ furlongs on the main track. The top New York-bred 3-year-old sprinter all year has been #9 Sculcos Folly. He had an 8 ½-length win at Aqueduct in the $194,000 Mind Your Biscuits Stakes at this distance, and a 5 ½-length win in Saratoga’s $200,000 Mike Lee Stakes at seven furlongs to go along with his win earlier this year in the $135,000 Gander Stakes at one mile. He also ranks as one of the overall top New York-bred 3-year-olds when you add in his runner-up finish in the 1 1/16-mile New York Derby. Despite those credentials, it’s possible he will be overlooked in this spot against older horses coming off a third-place finish in an allowance race versus open company at Saratoga in his last start, despite being beaten only three-quarters of a length by Dr. Kapur, who has already come back to greatly flatter Sculcos Folly last weekend when he won the Grade 3 Perryville Stakes at Keeneland. Sculcos Folly has the speed to get out in front in this field and is long-winded enough to fend off pressure and still go all the way. Flavien Prat picks up the mount. #1 Buttah has gotten really good, really fast this season, first with a June allowance win at Saratoga over next-out Grade 2 Amsterdam Stakes winner Local Knowledge. He followed with a win in Saratoga’s $200,000 John Morrissey Stakes over state-breds in August. He was not embarrassed when fourth, beaten by 2 ¼ lengths, last time out in Belmont’s Grade 3 Vosburgh Stakes, and he certainly fits perfectly in this spot back against New York-breds. The final top contender in the Hudson Stakes is #8 Sacrosanct, who comes in off a series of wins and top finishes in his five recent races where his Beyer Speed Figures ranged anywhere between 95-99, consistently putting him at or near the top of the horses in this field in terms of speed figures.

The Play: Bet on #9 Sculcos Folly (4-1) to win and play him in exacta and trifecta boxes along with #1 Buttah (5-2) and #8 Sacrosanct (3-1).

Belmont Park, Race 10, $250,000 Empire Classic Stakes, 5:02 p.m. ET

Pandagate after 2024 Albany Stakes win (Anne M. Eberhardt/BloodHorse)

The feature race of New York Showcase Day is the $250,000 Empire Classic, and this year it’s drawn an evenly matched 10-horse field ready to go 1 1/8 miles on the main track. Once upon a time in 2024, #4 Pandagate had been the most promising New York-bred of that year with consecutive state-bred wins in the Gander Stakes, New York Derby, and Albany Stakes sandwiched around a third-place finish in Dubai in the million-dollar U.A.E. Derby. Unfortunately, he did not race past September of that 3-year-old season in 2024 and then was limited to just one start in 2025. Now he’s on the comeback trail as a 5-year-old for Miguel Clement and got a solid return prep race under his belt at Belmont last month with a promising third-place finish against open allowance company. That first-off-the-layoff race sets him up to complete his comeback in this spot. If he’s ready, we already know he’s talented enough to win. #7 Iron Dome flopped in this race as the favorite for trainer Steve Asmussen last year but other than that had been almost unbeatable against New York-breds with a 10 ½-length maiden win, an 11-length allowance win, and a 6 ¾-length win in the 2025 Albany Stakes to his credit before venturing out against open company this year. Back against state-bred competition in this spot, he could be ready to avenge his Empire Classic loss last year at potentially a much better price. #6 Bank Frenzy won this race last year but has not yet been able to recapture his best form in the last year, so instead of him, let’s round-out our exotic wagers with the 2026 Albany Stakes winner #10 Tricky Business, which will give us exacta and trifecta boxes comprised by the last three winners of the Albany Stakes in 2024, ’25, and ’26. Tricky Business faded after setting the pace in the Grade 3 Oklahoma Derby last time out, but two races ago was able to carry his speed wire-to-wire at Saratoga to win the Albany by three lengths at this 1 1/8-mile distance in his most recent start against state-breds.

The Play: Bet on #4 Pandagate (6-1) to win and play him in exacta and trifecta boxes along with #7 Iron Dome (5-1) and #10 Tricky Business (8-1).