Churchill Downs’ November meet continues to hum along as the track’s Thanksgiving holiday weekend wind-down approaches, and Saturday’s card will showcase the often-overlooked day-to-day grinders of the sport in the 2025 Claiming Crown series.
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.
The annual Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge (BCBC) tournament presents handicappers with a chance to hit the score of a lifetime and become a champion horseplayer in an event held in conjunction with horse racing’s biggest championship days. This year, that champion was Dave Smyth, a 50-year-old financial advisor from Lexington, Ky., who topped a field of 635 entries to take home total winnings of $607,800 and the title of 2025 BCBC champion Oct. 31-Nov. 1 at Del Mar.
Fresh off of the 2025 Breeders’ Cup, we’ve got another big day of racing coming up on Monday, Nov. 3. This time around, we’ll head to Australia for “the race that stops a nation.”
It’s the Lexus Melbourne Cup, which goes as the seventh race at Flemington. Post time is 11 p.m. ET, and this two-mile event has drawn a power-packed field of 24 runners competing for a purse of $6.6 million ($10 million Australian). We’ll take a look at a few of them here and offer our top pick!
