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, Nov. 7

The horse racing world keeps turning after the Breeders’ Cup comes and goes, and the post-Breeders’ Cup fall schedule kicks off this week topped by an excellent 10-race Saturday program of racing and wagering at Belmont Park that includes four stakes races, topped by the Grade 2 Mother Goose Stakes. For this week’s blog, let’s take a closer look at two of the stakes races on the Saturday Belmont Park undercard, including the anticipated return of last year’s champion 2-year-old male Ted Noffey for his 3-year-old debut in the Dwyer Stakes.

Belmont Park, Race 7, $175,000 Carle Place Stakes, 2:41 p.m. ET

The Carle Place Stakes is a six-furlong turf sprint that has drawn an extremely competitive 10-horse field in which just about every entrant is a live contender. Since anyone can win and there will be good value available on the tote board, let’s see if we can beat the favorite with a trio of horses in the exactas and trifectas. #3 Oscar’s Hope comes in from Kentucky with solid form in his two most recent races and will be back in New York for the first time since he ran second by a neck to Stradale when flying late at 5 ½ furlongs in the Grade 3 Mahony Stakes at Saratoga. Stradale flattered Oscar’s Hope when he came back to win the Grade 2 Gallant Bob Stakes at Parx Racing, which has since turned into a key race. Most recently, Stradale finished fifth in the Cygames Breeders’ Cup Sprint. If Oscar’s Hope can replicate his effort from the Mahony Stakes, or maybe even improve in this better six-furlong spot, he should be the horse to beat. #7 Two Out Hero deserves another chance here after losing to some of these same horses last time in Belmont’s Bricks and Mortar Stakes after racing in traffic and then tiring late at seven furlongs. He should have better luck at this shorter distance and has the quality to win or at least make a dent based on his best effort, as he showed two races ago when second in a 12-horse field in the Grade 2 Mint Franklin-Simpson Stakes at Kentucky Downs. For horseplayers who have followed Belmont Park this season, one trainer that has been impossible to ignore has been Tom Morley, who sends out #6 Attfield at 10-1 odds on the morning line. Morley has not been sending out favorites but he’s 8-for-41 (20%) in the win column, 17-for-41 (41%) in the exacta, and 24-for-41 (59%) in the money. Attfield looked good picking up a win on Belmont’s new all-weather track last time in his second race back from a layoff, and he should be even better here in the third race of his form cycle with John Velazquez getting aboard for the mount.

The Play: Bet on #3 Oscar’s Hope (9-2) to win and play him in exacta and trifecta boxes along with #6 Attfield (10-1) and #7 Two Out Hero (6-1).

Belmont Park, Race 8, $200,000 Dwyer Stakes, 3:12 p.m. ET

Curlin Stakes winner Sea Strike (Eclipse Sportswire)

All eyes will be on the return of undefeated Ted Noffey, who has not been seen since winning the 2025 FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Presented by TAA to secure last year’s 2-year-old male Eclipse Award. His comeback starts Saturday in the one-turn-mile Dwyer Stakes in a 10-horse field at Belmont Park, and the feeling is that if you are ever going to have a chance to beat #6 Ted Noffey as a heavy favorite, this race is probably going to be it. A bet against Ted Noffey doesn’t mean we don’t respect him or won’t root for him, it just means we are trying to take advantage of a potential prime wagering opportunity against him. We’ll use Ted Noffey in the exactas and trifectas but take a shot against him to win. The Chad Brown trained #9 Sea Strike proved to be a bit overmatched in the Grade 1 DraftKings Travers Stakes but before that had won Saratoga’s Curlin Stakes by 8 ¼ lengths over Chief Wallabee. If he does that again, he will prove to be one tough match for Ted Noffey, who will perhaps need a race after a year layoff. The other horse to consider in the Dwyer is #8 Igniter, who was overmatched both in terms of competition and distance in his recent loss in the Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby. Two races ago when last seen at this one-mile distance, Igniter blew away the field by four lengths in the $389,000 Ellis Park Derby, and in this return to his wheelhouse distance, we should see a significantly better version of him this Saturday.

The Play: Bet on #9 Sea Strike (2-1) to win and play him in exacta and trifecta boxes along with #6 Ted Noffey (8-5) and #8 Igniter (8-1).