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, Aug. 9

Top turf horses take center stage this Saturday as many of the country’s best older grass runners take to the track within 10 minutes of each other in either the Grade 1 Resorts World Casino Sword Dancer Stakes going 1 ½ miles at Saratoga or the Grade 1 Arlington Million at going 1 ¼ miles at Colonial Downs. For this weekend’s winners, let’s take a closer look at these two important turf races and pick some winners on the grass. Enjoy the best turf stakes races the summer has to offer. Best of luck.

Saratoga, Race 10, $750,000 Resorts World Casino Sword Dancer Stakes, post time 5:44 p.m. ET

The Sword Dancer is the top turf race of the season for older horses at Saratoga, and it has drawn a quality nine-horse field set to go 1 ½ miles. #6 Far Bridge won the Sword Dancer a year ago and he’s come back better than ever so far this year as a 5-year-old with wins that include last month’s Grade 2 Bowling Green Stakes at Saratoga. He’ll sit comfortably on or close to the pace with a tactical edge on the many closers entered in this field. Trainer Charlie Appleby is always dangerous at Saratoga when he brings in horses from overseas and he has two entered in the Sword Dancer, #1 El Cordobes and #5 Nations Pride. Of that duo, the strong preference goes to Nations Pride, who has been a frequent North American invader throughout his career and almost always hit the board (at shorter distances) in those top-level races. El Cordobes, meanwhile, comes off a win in a four-horse field and has credentials that are far less convincing. The entrant in this field who could hit the board at a price is #2 Rebel Red, who must rebound from a disappointing loss last time out but would be dangerous if able to repeat the effort from his win two races ago at Churchill Downs in the $170,000 Chorleywood Stakes, which he won going away after making a strong closing move behind a slow pace.

The Play: Bet on #6 Far Bridge (9-5) to win and play him in exacta and trifecta boxes with #2 Rebel Red (8-1) and #5 Nations Pride (3-1).

Colonial Downs, Race 11, $1,000,000 Arlington Million Stakes, post time 5:54 p.m. ET

Integration (Susie Raisher/NYRA)

Saturday’s featured race at Colonial Downs, the Grade 1 Arlington Million going 1 ¼ miles, drew a field of eight. The big name in the field is 2024 Kentucky Derby winner #1 Mystik Dan, who will be making his grass debut. Is he even really a turf horse? Trainer Ken McPeek said he called “an audible” and avoided a tougher spot such as last weekend’s Whitney Stakes on the dirt in order to face more “modest” company in this race instead – not exactly a vote of confidence as a very likely underlay in the betting. Another of the contenders who appears to be questionable, at least to win, is #5 Cairo. He invades from overseas and is without a win since 2023. He enters the race off a third-place finish in a Group 1 race at Royal Ascot, and he comes to America seeking firm turf so pay attention to the course conditions and include him underneath in exactas and trifectas under ideal conditions. Trainer Shug McGaughey has entered two horses in the Million and it could come down to which of them is better between #6 Fort Washington and #8 Integration. Fort Washington is a multiple Grade 3 stakes winner who put together back-to-back wins earlier this year but may come-up a little short at this level. The horse to beat is Integration, a Colonial Downs “horse for course” who won twice on this turf course to begin his career in 2023, including his maiden win and a victory in the Virginia Derby. He returned last year to win Colonial’s Million Preview Stakes en route to a second-place finish in the 2024 Arlington Million. Integration’s most recent race was a close second by a head in a key stakes in the Grade 1 Resorts World Casino Manhattan Stakes, where he lost to next-out Grade 1 FanDuel Fourstardave Stakes winner Deterministic while a neck ahead of third-place finisher Far Bridge, who has since come back to win the Bowling Green Stakes and is favored in the Sword Dancer Stakes.

The Play: Bet on #8 Integration (8-5) to win and key him in first in exactas and trifectas above #5 Cairo (7-2) and #6 Fort Washington (4-1).