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, April 19

The Keeneland spring meet continues this weekend with another Saturday of great racing and wagering. Saturday’s 11-race card will be headlined by a pair of stakes races including the Grade 2 VisitLEX Elkhorn Stakes going long on the turf and the Grade 3 Bel Ali Stakes going long on the dirt. If we can cash in on these feature races, we should be well on our way to a profitable day at the races this weekend. Best of luck.

Keeneland Race Course, Race 9, $400,000 VisitLEX Elkhorn Stakes, 5:16 p.m. ET

The Grade 2 Elkhorn stakes has drawn a full field of older horses set to race 1 ½ miles on the turf and it’s a wide-open looking field. To pick the winner of the 2025 Elkhorn, let’s go “back to the future” to the 2023 Elkhorn Stakes, which was won by #4 Verstappen in what was his best career effort. Toss out Verstappen’s big loss last time in a shorter race on an all-weather surface and you will see that he ran a good effort in his most recent turf outing when second by a nose two starts ago in the $200,000 John B. Connally Turf Cup Stakes at Sam Houston in a race that marked a positive return to best form on the grass. He shows up sometimes and sometimes he doesn’t, but his 15-1 odds on the morning line make him worth a play in this race based on his best races. Another longshot with a chance in the Elkhorn is #11 Idratherbeblessed, who exits a win last time out in the Grade 2 Muniz Memorial Classic Stakes presented by Horse Racing Nation. He could shake loose on a solo lead in this race and could get brave up front if he’s able to get away with an easy pace. You can do a lot worse than going with the hot hand at 20-1 odds in a race like this, especially if he’s potentially the lone speed. So many of the horses in this race could win, but the horse to beat probably will be #9 Missed the Cut, who needed a race last time out off a long layoff and should be ready to roll now in his second start off the layoff. Missed the Cut finished second in this Elkhorn Stakes last year in addition to a winning a pair of 2024 graded stakes in California. He will be a tough customer if able to return to that type of good form in this race.

The Play: Bet on #4 Verstappen (15-1) to win and play him in exacta and trifecta boxes with #9 Missed the Cut (6-1) and #11 Idratherbeblessed (20-1).

Keeneland Race Course, Race 10, $350,000 Ben Ali Stakes, 5:48 p.m. ET

Ben Ali contender Duke of Love (Coady Media)

The Grade 3 Ben Ali Stakes has attracted a field of seven horses set to run 1 3/16 miles on the dirt. Unlike in the Elkhorn, I will restrict my use of the longshots to the exactas and trifectas because the horse I will be betting to win is the worthy favorite #6 Duke of Love. Despite spending much of his career racing on all-weather surfaces, Duke of Love is at his best on the dirt. Both of his career-best wins came on the dirt in 2023 when he won the third jewel in Canada’s Triple Crown in the Prince of Wales Stakes at this 1 3/16-mile distance and the Grade 3 West Virginia Governor’s Stakes. Following a year and a half layoff, Duke of Love is now looking to reboot his career and seems to have found an ideal spot to get it done. He got a seven-furlong prep race under his belt in his return from the sidelines last time out and now means business in this second race after the layoff with John Velazquez picking up the mount. #7 Uno Mas Bourbon has a shot in this spot based on his win last September in the $261,000 Super Derby at Louisiana Downs, so he should be included on your tickets, as well. The horse you really want in your exactas and trifectas, however, is #2 Prince of Power who can boost the value of your bets at morning-line odds of 15-1. He lost at the too-short distance of seven furlongs last time in the Grade 3 Commonwealth Stakes but this longer distance is much more in his wheelhouse based on his wire-to-wire win three races ago at the similar distance of 1 ¼ miles. He could shake loose up front in today’s Ben Ali field, and that alone makes him dangerous at by far the longest odds on the tote board.

The Play: Bet on #6 Duke of Love (5-2) to win and play him in exacta and trifecta boxes with #2 Prince of Power (15-1) and #7 Uno Mas Bourbon (7-2).