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, Oct. 11

The big fall meets are in full swing and Keeneland and Belmont at the Big A are two of the tracks that offer top-notch fall racing and wagering every weekend at this time of the year. For this weekend’s winners, let’s take a closer look at Saturday’s featured races from each of these tracks and formulate a plan to cash some late afternoon bets and win some money on this weekend’s stakes. Enjoy the races and best of luck this Saturday!

Belmont at the Big A, Race 10, $175,000 Glen Cove Stakes, 4:53 p.m. ET

The weekend’s featured race at Belmont at the Big A is the Grade 3 Glen Cove Stakes, which has drawn a 10-horse field of 3-year-old filly turf sprinters set to go six furlongs (plus two main-track-only runners in the event of a rainout). #5 Pop Idol is coming off a sub-par effort in a loss in a Woodbine stakes race where she got hooked and cooked in a speed duel. If you are willing to give her another chance today, however, you could be catching her at just the right time on the tote board as the bandwagon on her clears out. Prior to that last race, Pop Idol had reeled off three straight wins including a wire-to-wire Saratoga turf sprint two races ago in the $150,000 Galway Stakes against two of the top Glen Cove challengers. Looking around this field, Pop Idol once again has a great chance to get to the lead, control the pace, and go all the way for turf sprint ace trainer George Weaver. John Velazquez was aboard for the win in the Galway and is back on board in this race. If Pop Idol can’t get the job done, the most likely horse to catch her from an up-close position will be #4 Me Governor, who has raced just once since mid-May with a sharp-looking turf sprint allowance win at Colonial Downs off a similar type of 2 ½-month layoff on Aug. 1. The flops in Me Governor’s past performances usually come in dirt races or when she stretches out too far, but she always runs well turf sprints, including in her only outing so far on this turf course last fall when she won the $135,000 Stewart Manor Stakes. Finally, if the pace ends up fast and the race sets up for a stalker or closer, #2 Love Cervere could find herself in the right place at the right time. She comes in with good form for excellent turf sprint trainer Miguel Clement, including a win in Woodbine’s Alywow Stakes three races back.

The Play: Bet on #5 Pop Idol to win and play her in exacta and trifecta boxes with #2 Love Cervere and #4 Me Governor.

Keeneland Race Course, Race 9, $800,000 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes Presented by Dixiana, 5:16 p.m. ET

Laurelin wins Saratoga Oaks. (NYRA/Chelsea Durand)

Keeneland hosts the fall’s preeminent turf race restricted to 3-year-old fillies this weekend with the 2025 running of the Grade 1 QEII Challenge Cup. This year’s edition has drawn a nine-horse field ready to go 1 1/8 miles on the grass and the headline matchup everyone is waiting for is set between win machines #2 Laurelin and #9 Fionn in what figures to be a great race. The big money payoffs will only happen if one or both of Laurelin and Fionn finish out of the exacta, which seems unlikely. So, a better strategy is to play bigger denomination bets and focus just on both of those excellent fillies in exacta boxes. Then try to put the cherry on top of it all by adding #5 Opulent Restraint to complete the trifectas. Laurelin gets the nod to win based on her undefeated 5-for-5 lifetime record so far, including her first career graded stakes win last time in the 1 3/16-mile Grade 2 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Oaks Invitational Stakes, in which she earned a new career-best speed figure in her first race beyond 1 1/16 miles. Jockey Kendrick Carmouche is in town for the mount, and he always seems to have her in a perfect stalking position when she kicks into high gear to do her best running in the stretch. Fionn also will do her best running in the stretch but will very likely be coming from a closing position farther off the pace, which gives Laurelin the chance to get the jump on her. The exacta should still be boxed, however, because Fionn has put together an incredible season so far with six wins in her last seven races dating back to December, including a nose win over Nitrogen in the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks Invitational Stakes in July at Saratoga. If there is a chance for an upset, it will probably involve the Chad Brown-trained Opulent Restraint getting a clear lead and going all the way. There doesn’t appear to be much pace entered in this race, so the wire-to-wire scenario does loom a possibility for her as the third choice on the tote board.

The Play: Bet on #2 Laurelin (5-2) to win and play her in an exacta box with #9 Fionn (3-1). For trifecta boxes, use the same two horses and add #5 Opulent Restraint (4-1).