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.

The Fair Grounds season comes to an end this weekend but not before the meet goes out with a bang with a stakes-filled program on Saturday topped by the Grade 2 Twinspires.com Louisiana Derby. Several other stakes races round out a tremendous 14-race card at Fair Grounds, and for this weekend’s winners, let’s focus on the $100,000 Costa Rising Stakes in Race 8 where we will have a great opportunity to catch a longshot winner. Enjoy Louisiana Derby Day from Fair Grounds this Saturday. Best of luck.

Saturday, March 21

Fair Grounds, Race 8, $100,000 Costa Rising Stakes, post time 4:32 p.m. ET

This state-bred stakes race on the undercard has drawn an overflow field of turf sprinters ready to dash 5 ½ furlongs on the grass, and it’s a standout betting race. Perhaps some bettors will shy away from the far outside post, but #12 Dr. My Eyes very well could be the horse to beat and is listed at 20-1 odds on the morning line. That makes him an automatic play. Assuming this race will be run on the turf, there are a lot of contenders in the field that seem a lot better and more accomplished on the dirt, but not Dr. My Eyes who has been good in both of his turf sprint outings so far at this meet including his maiden win and a front-running third-place finish last time in a close loss where he finished ahead of that race’s 3-5 favorite. He has speed and will send from the far outside. If he can clear and get to the rail at the turn, he’ll loom a threat to go all the way at a big price. Worth a shot. The other top contenders on the turf are the two inside horses, #1 Nine Part and #2 Strong Promise. Nine Part switched to the turf for the first time in his last race and beat some of Saturday’s challengers with a good winning effort despite a slow start in his first race back from a long layoff. He’ll be even better here in this second race off the layoff and with Jose Ortiz back for the mount. Strong Promise has raced on the dirt lately but was the winner of both of his two most recent turf sprint outings last summer at Evangeline Downs where the speed figures he earned indicate he has what it takes to or at least hit the board vs. this field.

The Play: Bet on #12 Dr. My Eyes (20-1) to win and play him in exacta and trifecta boxes along with #1 Nine Part (3-1) and #2 Strong Promise (6-1).

Fair Grounds, Race 12, $1,000,000 Twinspires.com Louisiana Derby, post time 6:42 p.m. ET

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The Grade 2 Twinspires.com Louisiana Derby is a 100-points-to-the-winner prep race for the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve, and it is the headline event of the Fair Grounds racing season. The race has drawn a competitive nine-horse field set to go 1 3/16 miles, and the field contains the winners of three prep races on the road to the Kentucky Derby so far – $500,000 Sunland Park Derby winner #1 Pavlovian, $100,000 Gun Runner Stakes winner #3 Chip Honcho, and Grade 3 Lecomte Stakes winner #5 Golden Tempo. The Louisiana Derby pick amongst that trio is Chip Honcho, who ran a dynamite effort in defeat in last month’s Grade 2 Fasig-Tipton Risen Star Stakes where he gave leading Kentucky Derby contender Paladin all he could handle until getting caught by a half a length steps before the wire. Chip Honcho got to the lead in the Risen Star, ran the other front runners off their feet, and finished 5 ½ lengths ahead of the next closest horses, including Golden Tempo who was back in third. There’s no Paladin entered in Saturday’s race, and with the absence of that standout rival, that leaves Chip Honcho as the horse to beat. Golden Tempo is a contender for the exactas and trifectas if he can rebound with the kind of effort that won him the Lecomte Stakes on this racetrack back in January. Blinkers come on and leading rider Jose Ortiz has the mount, so it’s too early to give up hope. Pavlovian out-battled Remington Springboard Mile winner Express Kid by a nose last time to win the Sunland Park Derby for trainer Doug O’Neill in a vastly improved effort with added blinkers. That victory makes him a legit contender in this field. Finally, the other interesting contender in this race is #9 Emerging Market who exits his maiden win at Tampa Bay Downs for trainer Chad Brown. He’s dangerous with jockey Flavien Prat here for the mount based on his big 97 Beyer Speed Figure, but it should be noted that he won that maiden race by less than a length over runner-up Powershift who returned to finish a non-threatening sixth when beaten 9 ½ lengths in the ESMARK Tampa Bay Derby in his next start. Now he’s playing catch-up against much more experienced rivals.

The Play: Bet on #3 Chip Honcho (3-1) to win and play him in exacta and trifecta boxes along with #1 Pavlovian (6-1) and #5 Golden Tempo (7-2).