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, March 14

Colonial Downs in Virginia runs its brief March meet this week and the key day of action will be Saturday headlined by the $500,000 Virginia Derby presented by New Kent County, a Road to the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve prep race that awards 50 qualifying points to the winner. For this weekend’s winners, let’s take a closer look at the Virginia Derby and one of the undercard stakes on the program, the $100,000 Royal New Kent Stakes. If we can pick these two winners, we’ll be well on our way to a successful day of racing and wagering this Saturday. Best of Luck.

Colonial Downs, Race 5, $100,000 Royal New Kent Stakes, 2:20 p.m. ET

The $100,000 Royal New Kent Stakes has drawn an accomplished six-horse field set to go one mile on the expansive main track at Colonial Downs. My top pick in the race is one of the longest shots on the morning line, #1 Rolando, who has picked up some solid speed figures in his recent losses in tough races, including a third-place finish last time in the $105,000 Gulfstream Park Sprint Stakes. Normally a sprinter, Rolando earned a fast front-running win in a similar $100,000 stakes race at Colonial Downs last year in his last time stretching out to one mile on dirt. Rolando should offer value on the tote board and already owns local winning experience at the distance. The morning-line favorite is #6 Dragoon Guard with Irad Ortiz Jr. aboard based on a solid second-place finish last November in the $249,000 Cherokee Mile Stakes at Churchill Downs. This will be his first outing in 3 ½ months and he will probably offer underlay odds, but he still deserves to be included in exactas and trifectas vs. this bunch. The other horse to include in your wagers is #4 Tour Player, who won his return from a long layoff two races ago with a sharp effort in November at Gulfstream Park and then lost to the likes of heavy favorite Knightsbridge last time in Gulfstream’s Grade 3 Fred Hooper Stakes Presented by Visit Lauderdale. Tour Player won twice at Churchill Downs in one-turn miles last year, earned consistently strong speed figures in his more recent races, and picks up jockey Flavien Prat, which gives him a good chance to at least hit the board this Saturday.

The Play: Bet on #1 Rolando (6-1) to win and play him in exacta and trifecta boxes along with #4 Tour Player (9-2) and #6 Dragoon Guard (1-1).

Colonial Downs, Race 9, $500,000 Virgina Derby Presented by New Kent County, 5:10 p.m. ET

Virginia Derby morning-line favorite Buetane (BENOIT photo)

Saturday’s featured race at Colonial Downs is the $500,000 Virginia Derby, which has drawn a 10-horse field of 3-year-olds set to go 1 1/8 miles (one turn) for big money and a likely spot in the field for the 2026 run for the roses. The deserving favorite is #1 Buetane, who makes the trip cross-country from his California base for trainer Bob Baffert and will be the most accomplished horse in the race along with #7 Incredibolt. Buetane has finished in the money in three straight graded stakes races, including a second to 2-year-old champion Ted Noffey in Saratoga’s Grade 1 Spendthrift Farm Hopeful Stakes last fall, a second in Santa Anita’s seven-furlong Grade 2 San Vicente Stakes, and a third last time in the Grade 3 Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park, where he just missed second by a head behind good-looking winner Silent Tactic. Buetane finds the perfect spot to finally get over the hump here with Flavien Prat aboard. The aforementioned Incredibolt is the lone stakes winner in the field after his promising victory in the Grade 3 Street Sense Stakes at Churchill Downs last fall for trainer Riley Mott. Incredibolt disappointed last time when sixth in the Grade 3 Holy Bull Stake, but he may have needed that 3-year-old season-debut outing after a short layoff and he can be counted on for a better effort at solid odds as the wagering bandwagon on him clears out at 10-1 odds on the morning line. #8 Confessional really laid an egg last time when the blinkers were removed and he finished seventh in the Sam F. Davis Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs, but the blinkers come back on today providing optimism for a positive rebound for trainer Brad Cox. Irad Ortiz Jr., who was aboard Confessional’s fast runner-up finish to Nearly two races ago at Gulfstream Park, is back aboard, and that race looks even better since Nearly came back to trounce the field in the Holy Bull in his following start.

The Play: Bet on #1 Buetane (5-2) to win and play him in exacta and trifecta boxes along with #7 Incredibolt (10-1) and #8 Confessional (4-1).