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, July 18

Horse racing fans are looking forward to fast times at the Jersey shore this weekend with Monmouth Park’s premier day of racing and wagering happening Saturday. The featured $1 million NYRA Bets Haskell Stakes headlines New Jersey racing’s biggest day on a 14-race program that also includes four other graded stakes races. For picks and analysis in the Haskell, visit America’s Best Racing’s staff trifecta selections article. For this column, let’s focus on handicapping two other stakes races on Saturday’s card at Monmouth. If we can sweep the stakes, we’ll be well on our way to a big Haskell day. Best of luck and enjoy the races.

Monmouth Park, Race 9, $100,000 Wolf Hill Stakes, 4:05 p.m. ET

Nothing Better wins 2024 Wolf Hill Stakes (Ryan Denver/EQUI-PHOTO)

The Wolf Hill Stakes has attracted a field of 10 turf sprinters ready to dash 5 ½ furlongs. The Wolf Hill has become an annual engagement for #6 Nothing Better, who won this race in 2024 and finished second in 2025. He has remained in good form since last fall, including a wire-to-wire win over some of these same rivals in his prep last time out at Penn National in his first race back from a six-month layoff. Of the horses in this race capable of making the lead, he’s the one with a chance to go all the way. Monmouth’s leading rider, Paco Lopez, has the mount. #5 Alogon is another horse in this field making his second start back from a long layoff. In his case, he seemed to need an outing but should be set to improve with the return race under his belt. He has been competitive among some of the top turf sprint company everywhere he has gone — he won the Grade 3 Belmont Turf Sprint last fall — and he will find this race to be a softer spot than most of the races he’s run in the past couple years. Finally, if you like Alogon you’ve also got to give a chance to #1 Souper Quest, who finished ahead of him last time out when second in Monmouth’s $100,000 Get Serious Stakes behind multiple stakes-winning favorite Governor Sam, who blazed the five furlongs in :55.18. Souper Quest gets Irad Ortiz Jr. aboard and could benefit from the 5 ½-furlong distance of this race.

The Play: Bet on #6 Nothing Better (3-1) to win and play him in exacta and trifecta boxes along with #1 Souper Quest (4-1) and #5 Alogon (5-2).

Monmouth Park, Race 11, $500,000 United Nations Stakes, 5:09 p.m. ET

Program Trading wins Monmouth Stakes June 13 (Bill Denver/EQUI-PHOTO)

The feature race on the Haskell undercard will be the Grade 2 United Nations Stakes at 1 3/8 miles on the turf. The United Nations has drawn an eight-horse field, and it looks like a good opportunity to build more bankroll. It’s going to be difficult to pick against #4 Program Trading with Flavien Prat aboard for trainer Chad Brown. He’s a multiple Grade 1 winner from earlier in his career who enjoyed a resurgence in his most recent race when he rolled to victory in his local prep race in the $125,000 Monmouth Stakes on Haskell Preview Day. He’s a 1 1/8-mile specialist who has never raced at this 1 3/8-mile distance, but he seems more well-suited to this trip than most of his rivals on Saturday. He’s the horse to beat. All #6 Uncle’s Gold does is win, and even though this will be a class test for him, he deserves a firm spot on all of your exacta and trifecta tickets. Uncle’s Gold has won five of his last six starts and comes in on a three-race winning streak. He has a strong upward trajectory, and we still may not have seen the best of him yet. It could happen on Saturday. #7 Just a Touch was a money-burning beaten favorite over multiple races until a switch to the grass breathed new life into his career in his two most recent races, including a win at Keeneland and a stakes win in Delaware Park’s $200,000 Cape Henlopen Stakes going 1 ½ miles last time out. Irad Ortiz Jr. has the mount, and Just a Touch is versatile enough that he can either go for the lead or stalk from off the pace.

The Play: Bet on #4 Program Trading (2-1) to win and play him in exacta and trifecta boxes along with #6 Uncle’s Gold (9-2) and #7 Just a Touch (8-5).