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.

Horseshoe Indianapolis, Race 11, $200,000 Daily Racing Form Indiana Oaks, post time 5:55 p.m. ET

The Grade 3 Indiana Oaks has drawn a field of six 3-year-old fillies set to run 1 1/16 miles. Even with a short field, the race could give handicappers an opportunity to catch a longshot. #1 Sturgeon Moon returns from a layoff and chooses this winnable spot for her seasonal debut with John Velazquez picking up the mount. Trainer Will Walden is winning at a high percentage straight across the board, including 25% overall this year and 21% with horses returning from this kind of a layoff of more than six months. Sturgeon Moon has been drilling bullets in the mornings in preparation for this return to the races. Last year she won her maiden at this track, and she also shows a win at this distance last fall in a tough Keenelend allowance before settling for fourth behind much heavier hitters than this race’s competition including 2-year-old filly champion Good Cheer in last fall’s Grade 2 Golden Rod Stakes. With the normal progression you would expect from a young horse from age 2 to age 3, this underdog should be able to prove best against her rivals if ready right off the bat in her return from the sidelines. The morning-line favorites in this race, #2 Clicquot and #5 Heavenly Sunset, are both playable in the exactas and trifectas. They exit a 1-2 finish in a May 31 Churchill Downs allowance optional claiming race at this distance where both fillies earned solid speed figures. Both horses have speed and should ensure a good pace setup for Sturgeon Moon’s stretch rally.

The Play: Bet on #1 Sturgeon Moon (15-1) to win and play her in separate exacta boxes with #2 Clicquot (8-5) and #5 Heavenly Sunset (9-5). Box the three horses in the trifecta.

Horseshoe Indianapolis, Race 12, $300,000 Indiana Derby, post time 6:33 p.m. ET

Coal Battle (Coady Media)

Saturday’s featured Grade 3 Indiana Derby will host a competitive field of eight 3-year-olds after the expected scratch of #5 Chunk of Gold. The horse to beat is #3 Coal Battle, who was a terrific story leading up to the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve with prep race victories for low-profile connections in races like the Remington Springboard Mile and Oaklawn Park’s Smarty Jones Stakes and Grade 2 Rebel Stakes. The thing those races had in common was they were at distances ranging from a mile to 1 1/16 miles, and Coal Battle only fizzled out when the distances got longer. Distance will not be an issue since the Indiana Derby is held at Coal Battle’s wheelhouse 1 1/16-mile distance. The contender in the race with a sneaky shot at an upset is #6 Tip Top Thomas who comes to town for trainer Todd Pletcher off an impressive wire-to-wire allowance optional claiming win last time over Sand Devil going a mile at Belmont at the Big A. The Indiana Derby marks his return to stakes company for the first time since he finished a respectable second behind Chancer McPatrick in last fall’s Grade 1 Champagne Stakes. Finally, #9 Instant Replay has been in good form this year with three wins in four races in a carefully orchestrated campaign where he took advantage of softer spots to win the $200,000 Batch House Row Stakes and the $300,000 Texas Derby.

The Play: Bet on #3 Coal Battle (7-2) to win and play him in exacta and trifecta boxes with #6 Tip Top Thomas (6-1) and #9 Instant Replay (6-1).