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, April 25

Saturday is opening day at Churchill Downs and with the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve a week away, this weekend could best be described as the calm before the storm. For this weekend’s winners, let’s take a closer look at handicapping a couple of the top races on Saturday’s 10-race card at Churchill Downs. We can make some money, build some bankroll, and then hopefully unleash some big wins during the upcoming big week ahead. Best of luck.

Churchill Downs, Race 6, $35,000 maiden claiming, post time 4:12 p.m. ET

Maiden claimers kick-off the late Pick 5 Saturday at Churchill Downs with a full field of fillies and mares sprinting six furlongs. This race is a wide-open scramble, so just pick the top finishers and you should get paid nicely. #7 Cocoa Nimbus drops in class down to her lowest level yet and looms the most likely winner after losing her three races so far all against tougher company. She tired at one mile in her first drop down to face maiden claimers in her last race but should handle this sprint assignment much better based on her third-place career debut outing in a maiden special weight race at Turfway Park. This will be her first-ever race on a dirt track after three outings on Turfway’s all-weather surface, but she trains on a dirt track and should improve enough to graduate against this field. #11 Velveteen has been knocking on the door lately at this $12,500 claiming level with runner-up finishes in her last two races at Fair Grounds and Horseshoe Indianapolis, and her dirt sprint speed figures stand out against the horses in this bunch who have prior dirt sprint form in their past performances. The final horse that belongs in your exactas and trifectas is #9 Dodecahedron, who is still seeking her maiden win in her 13th career race, but who has hit the board in half of her 12 races so far. She finished mid-pack last time against a tougher group at Keeneland but had finished second twice in a row before that in a pair of maiden claiming sprints at Turfway.

The Play: Bet on #7 Cocoa Nimbus (9-2) to win and box her in exactas and trifectas along with #9 Dodecahedron (8-1), and #11 Velveteen (6-1).

Churchill Downs, Race 9, $200,000 Roxelana Stakes presented by LG&E KU, 5:46 p.m. ET

Lotsandlotsofcandy wins Nelson J. Menard Memorial Stakes (Hodges Photography/Jan Brubaker)

Saturday’s feature race at Churchill Downs is the Roxelana Stakes for fillies and mares, which drew an eight-horse field set to compete at six furlongs. #4 Lotsandlotsofcandy owns good early speed, is a stakes winner this year in a $100,000 race at Fair Grounds, and is already a proven winner at Churchill Downs, where she earned two wins and a second in her three prior outings the last two years. Her last-out loss was a solid try on the turf, but with this move back to the main track she becomes the horse to catch on the lead and will be tough to beat. #7 Vincey Girl comes off a win at Tampa Bay Downs in her only race this year when she looked good in her return from a six-month layoff. She should be even better now in this second start off the layoff, and she’ll be a major challenger if able to duplicate her stakes-winning performance from Gulfstream Park three races ago. Perhaps the biggest name in this field based on past accomplishments is #6 Zeitlos, who might be a little past her stakes-winning prime from 2024 yet still was good enough last fall to finish fourth in the PNC Bank Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint. She’s a four-time winner at Churchill Downs, a seven-time winner at this distance, and has the benefit of a prep race under her belt as she makes her second start of the season Saturday.

The Play: Bet on #4 Lotsandlotsofcandy (7-2) to win and play her in exacta and trifecta boxes along with #6 Zeitlos (5-1) and #7 Vincey Girl (9-2).