MediaWelcome 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.

The post-Breeders’ Cup fall season in horse racing has arrived and Aqueduct is ready to roll this Saturday with a very good 10-race card of New York racing and wagering that includes three graded stakes races. For this weekend’s winners, let’s turn our attention to the Big Apple where we can pick the winners, exactas, and trifectas in a pair of graded stakes for 3-year-olds including the Grade 3 Hill Prince Stakes on the grass and the Grade 2 Mother Goose Stakes for fillies on the dirt. If we can nail down some profits in these two feature races, we will be well on our way to a big day at the Big A. Best of luck.

Saturday, Nov. 8

Aqueduct, Race 7, $200,000 Hill Prince Stakes, post time 2:39 p.m. ET

The Grade 3 Hill Prince Stakes has drawn a nine-horse field of colts and geldings set to go 1 1/8 miles on the Aqueduct inner turf course. The favorite and horse to beat will be #6 Stars and Strides so when handicapping the race you will have to start with him. He owns three wins in four starts to begin his career, all at Saratoga, including back-to-back turf wins in his last two outings. He’ll be ready for trainer Bill Mott, but his odds for win bets will be low and he finished less than a length ahead of #7 Griffin’s Wharf in an expensive allowance optional claiming race going one mile at the Spa where Griffin’s Wharf was flying late. Griffin’s Wharf could get up in time in this longer 1 1/8-mile assignment with a similar late rally which gives him a chance to turn the tables at 6-1 odds. Another contender in this race at 6-1 odds on the morning line will be #9 Tiz Dashing based on his competitive fourth-place finish (moved up to third via DQ) in the Grade 2 National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame Stakes this summer. In that race, he was impeded (along with another horse) by the heavily favored eventual first-place finisher Zulu Kingdom, who was placed fourth. Before that, Tiz Dashing was also competitive against the likes of Zulu Kingdom when third by a length in Saratoga’s Grade 3 Manila Stakes on July 4. Tiz Dashing has the ability to upset these and may be overlooked on the tote board from the far outside.

The Play: Bet on #9 Tiz Dashing (6-1) to win and play him in exacta and trifecta boxes with #6 Stars and Strides (2-1) and #7 Griffin’s Wharf (6-1).

Aqueduct, Race 9, $300,000 Mother Goose Stakes, post time 3:39 p.m. ET

The Grade 2 Mother Goose Stakes has attracted a field of nine 3-year-old fillies ready to race 1 1/8 miles on the Aqueduct main track. In a very contentious field, the advantage goes to #4 Ourdaydreaminggirl who is being severely underrated at 8-1 odds on the morning line. She exits an up-close third-place finish in the Grade 1 Cotillion Stakes where she was just a neck behind Grade 3 Daily Racing Form Indiana Oaks winner Clicquot who came back to run fourth in last weekend’s $2 million Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff. Ourdaydreaminggirl has clearly improved since being stretched out to two-turn races two starts ago and shows an enviable pattern of eight straight races of speed figure improvement dating all the way back to this time last year. #6 Fully Subscribed also will be another of the serious contenders in this race going out for trainer Chad Brown, who also has an outside chance with #5 Filly Freedom. This will be Fully Subscribed’s stakes debut, but she ran fast in a narrow neck defeat last time out, finishing second while 8 ¾ lengths ahead of the third horse in what was her second race off a layoff and first try at this 1 1/8-mile distance. As for Brown’s “other” entry, Filly Freedom has a lot of value as a sleeper in the race at 15-1 odds on the morning line. She returned from three months on the sidelines last time to romp by 8 ¼ lengths in a stretchout to one mile. She should be even better at 1 1/8 miles in this second outing off the layoff.

The Play: Bet on #4 Ourdaydreaminggirl (8-1) to win and play her in exacta and trifecta boxes with #5 Filly Freedom (15-1) and #6 Fully Subscribed (4-1).