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, Sept. 19

Parx Racing in Bensalem, Pa. (a Philadelphia suburb) takes center stage this Saturday as the $1 million Pennsylvania Derby headlines the state’s biggest race day of the year. Parx will host a total of eight stakes races on the 15-race program topped by three graded stakes, and my picks and analysis for the Pennsylvania Derby can be found in ABR’s staff trifecta picks article. For this edition of weekend winners, let’s take a closer look at a couple of the key races on Saturday’s Parx undercard. If we can make some money leading up to the big event, we can roll that money over to take a big swing on the feature race. Best of luck and enjoy the races at Parx!

Parx Racing, Race 8, $150,000 Stable Recovery Stakes, post time 1:56 p.m. ET

The 6 ½-furlong Stable Recovery Stakes has drawn a deep eight-horse field where you can make a case for just about every horse in the field to win, so it’s going to be a heckuva race. The horse in the field with the best current form is #1 Fire Pit, who has won three in a row after parlaying a pair of expensive allowance-optional claiming wins into a stakes victory over some of these same horses last time out at Parx. Fire Pit overcame a bad start three races ago, overcame a speed duel two races ago, and overcame traffic troubles in a tight pack last time, and the wins have just kept on coming. He can send for the lead from the rail or try to rate a pocket trip and should have one more win left in him on Saturday. #2 Buccherino exits a fourth-place finish behind Fire Pit last time but is live for a big improvement here in what will be his second race off a six-month layoff. The six-time winner at Parx who finished third in the 2024 Gallant Bob Stakes and won the 2025 Parx Sprint Stakes shows up ready to roll for these big race days. He needed that last race, but all systems are “go” this Saturday. #7 Ignite the Light invades from New York for trainer Rick Dutrow Jr. and steals jockey Flavien Prat away from Fire Pit for the mount. The most recent race for Ignite the Light wasn’t good, but his three other 2026 starts all pointed to a horse ready for a stakes-level breakout with Beyer Speed Figures ranging anywhere between 91-100. If there’s a pace meltdown in this race, which is possible, Ignite the Light should be stalking comfortably at this distance and should come rallying in the stretch.

The Play: Bet on #1 Fire Pit (5-1) to win and play him in exacta and trifecta boxes along with #2 Buccherino (6-1) and #7 Ignite the Light (9-2).

Parx Racing, Race 12, $400,000 Gallant Bob Stakes, post time 4:03 p.m. ET

Stradale wins Mahony Stakes (Coglianese Photos)

The Grade 2 Gallant Bob Stakes has drawn a full 12-horse field of 3-year-old sprinters ready for battle going six furlongs. The horse to beat will be #8 Stradale for trainer Steve Asmussen with Jose Ortiz aboard. Stradale is coming off a Grade 3 win on turf in Saratoga’s Mahony Stakes, but has already shown he is as good or better on the dirt than he is on the turf this past season at Oaklawn Park where he won at six furlongs and then just missed by a neck when second in the $150,000 Bachelor Stakes at six furlongs on May 1. He is very likely to sit a cozy, up-close stalking trip in this spot and should finish strongest of all. Trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. sends out three runners in this field and any and all of them are legitimate contenders, but the most interesting of the bunch is #6 Dr. Kapur, who began his career in good-looking fashion as a 2-year-old and then suddenly reemerged last time out with a come-from-behind six-furlong allowance win at Saratoga against one of the Spa’s typically strong fields. Joseph’s attempt to make a route stakes horse out of Dr. Kapur over the winter failed, but when Dr. Kapur sticks to sprints on fast tracks, he appears to have plenty of talent. Tyler Gaffalione rode him last time and has the mount on Saturday. Finally, let’s include #10 Captivator in our exactas and trifectas based on his 2-for-2 record this year for trainer John Sadler. He invades from Southern California with sharp current form at six furlongs, seems to still be improving, and has loads of speed but has shown he doesn’t need a clear lead in order to win.

The Play: Bet on #8 Stradale (4-1) to win and play him in exacta and trifecta boxes with #6 Dr. Kapur (8-1), and #10 Captivator (9-2).