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.

This Saturday, Fair Grounds in New Orleans will present its 13-race “Road to the Derby Day” program headlined by six stakes races worth a total of $875,000. The marquee event of the day will be the running of the Grade 3 Lecomte Stakes for 3-year-olds on the Road to the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve. There are also plenty of good races on the Fair Grounds undercard on Saturday, as well. Leading off the day’s stakes offerings will be the $100,000 Duncan F. Kenner Stakes, which has drawn a strong field of turf sprinters. For this weekend’s winners, let’s take a closer look at both the Lecomte and the Kenner. If we can start strong and finish strong on Saturday’s stakes races at Fair Grounds, we will be well on our way to a big day in the Big Easy. Best of luck.

Saturday, Jan. 17

Fair Grounds, Race 7, $100,000 Duncan F. Kenner Stakes, post time 4 p.m. ET

Saturday’s stakes action at Fair Grounds kicks off with the $100,000 Duncan F. Kenner Stakes for turf sprinters going 5 ½ furlongs, which has attracted a high-quality full field. The morning-line odds appear to have missed the boat on the horse to beat in the race, #3 Bear River, who is listed at 8-1. We’ll take it if we can get anything close to that. Bear River’s two recent losses came in a dirt race and in the Prevagen Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint. If you overlook those losses, you will see Bear River’s wins in back-to-back tougher stakes races in Kentucky last summer atop a murderers’ row of turf sprint heavyweights like Coppola, Nobals, Howard Wolowitz, and Khaadem. Plus, Bear River is already 2-for-2 on the Fair Grounds turf course including an easy wire-to-wire stakes win at last season’s meet. #4 Usually Wrong got disqualified from a win at Fair Grounds last time out where he was by far the best horse in the race, finishing ahead by 2 ¾ lengths with a 101 Beyer Speed Figure. He was a three-time stakes winner in 2025 and can get highly attainable redemption with a win in this spot. Finally, it can’t be denied that #9 Can’t Deny It already owns a perfect 3-for-3 record in turf sprints including two wins at Fair Grounds, and he comes into this race off two straight wire-to-wire turf sprint wins for trainer Larry Rivelli, who is always extremely dangerous in these types of turf sprints with frontrunners who are able to get to the lead.

The Play: Bet on #3 Bear River (8-1) to win and play him in exacta and trifecta boxes along with #4 Usually Wrong (3-1) and #9 Can’t Deny It (8-1).

Fair Grounds, Race 13, $250,000 Lecomte Stakes, post time 7 p.m. ET

Golden Tempo (Lou Hodges, Jr. /Hodges Photography)

The Grade 3 Lecomte Stakes for 3-year-olds with Derby aspirations has drawn an evenly-matched bunch of 11 entrants. There are many contenders in the field but no clear standout. Three of the top challengers are coming out of 1-3-4 finishes in last month’s Gun Runner Stakes at Fair Grounds won by #11 Chip Honcho, but none of that trio along with fourth-place #1 Quality Mischief and third-place #3 Crown the Buckeye really stood out. In my opinion the most impressive horse in the Gun Runner was troubled runner-up Liberty National, who is not entered in this field and reportedly is pointing for the Fasig-Tipton Risen Star Stakes here or to Gulfstream Park’s Coolmore Fountain of Youth Stakes instead. With Liberty National absent, we’ll be looking for a new face to win the Lecomte. #5 Golden Tempo won his career debut last time with an eye-catching last-to-first rally at six furlongs. Sired by Curlin, he should only get better in this first try at a route distance for trainer Cherie DeVaux with Fair Grounds’ leading jockey Jose Ortiz back aboard. Another new shooter with a legitimate chance to beat the favorites is #10 Stop the Car, who didn’t draw a great post position but still must be viewed as a major contender based on the 2-for-2 start to his career including a maiden win at Keeneland and a big allowance optional claiming win last time at Churchill Downs where his Beyer Speed Figure jumped 15 points in his stretchout to a one mile. Based on his running style, this slight stretch to 1 1/16 miles around two turns should suit him just fine if jockey Ben Curtis can work out a trip from the outside. Speaking of outside posts, Chip Honcho is drawn out in the parking lot in post 11 but nevertheless deserves some credit for his Gun Runner Stakes win and should be included in exactas and trifectas.

The Play: Bet on #5 Golden Tempo (8-1) to win and play him in exacta and trifecta boxes along with #10 Stop the Car (8-1) and #11 Chip Honcho (9-2).