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, Aug. 29

The headline day of the Saratoga summer meet has arrived, and while the meet goes by way too fast, racing fans are all looking forward to a great Travers Stakes day this Saturday at “the Spa.” The $1.25 million DraftKings Travers Stakes headlines a great 14-race card at Saratoga, and if you are looking for America’s Best Racing staff selections for the featured race you can find our Travers trifecta picks plays here. For this Weekend Winners column, let’s take a look at two of the best stakes races on the Travers undercard. If we can combine profits from these best bets along with winning wagers on the Travers, we should be well on our way to a big Saturday at Saratoga. Best of luck!

Saratoga Race Course, Race 10, $400,000 Lake Placid Stakes, 4:33 p.m. ET

The Grade 2 Lake Placid Stakes has drawn a good nine-horse field of 3-year-old fillies set to run one mile on the turf. Chad Brown trains two of the entrants and they seem to have complimentary running styles with the speed of Group 2-winning French invader #5 Naomis potentially setting the table for #4 Deep Learning to come from off the pace for the win. Deep Learning was a stakes winner at age 2 and finished second in the Grade 2 Miss Grillo Stakes last fall before going to the sidelines for nine months. She got an outing on this turf course last time when second in the Grade 2 Lake George Stakes Presented by Surfside and should be fully cranked and ready to roll on Saturday. While Naomis tries to hold on in the lane after needing to fend off #9 East Jabip up front, closer #1 Queen of Hawaii will also be bearing down in the lane. Just like Deep Learning, she returned from a long layoff in her last race to run a good 3-year-old debut with an allowance win at this course and distance. Queen of Hawaii was a Group 3 winner in Ireland last year, was live on the tote board in last year’s John Deere Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, and gets Jose Ortiz aboard for trainer Philip Antonacci, who has been a high-percentage winner at Saratoga the last two summers.

The Play: Bet on #4 Deep Learning (4-1) to win and play her in exacta and trifecta boxes along with #1 Queen of Hawaii (2-1) and #5 Naomis (3-1).

Saratoga Race Course, Race 12, $500,000 Resorts World Casino Ballerina Stakes, 5:49 p.m. ET

Echo Sound wins 2025 Victory Ride Stakes (Eclipse Sportswire)

The Grade 1 Ballerina Stakes at seven furlongs has drawn a full 12-horse field of standout female sprinters. Along with the Travers, this is the best betting race on the card. The field is so competitive, in fact, that I am willing to leave out a multiple graded stakes winning monster like #12 Eclatant off my tickets. If she beats us at 3-1 on the morning line, we’ll just have to grin and bear it. The favorite that you just can’t ignore is #7 Ways and Means, a true Saratoga horse for the course that has adored the Spa throughout her career with five wins and a second in six lifetime outings. She’s coming off her second straight win in Saratoga’s Grade 2 Bed o’ Roses Stakes Presented by Boldyn Networks where she refused to lose and looks as good now as ever. That said, there are a couple of horses in this field with legit upset chances, and we’ll include them in our wagers as well. #10 R Disaster beat Ways and Means last time when she won the Grade 1 Derby City Distaff Presented by Ford at Churchill Downs and just simply refuses to ever run a bad race. Now, when you add a Grade 1 win to her incredible consistency, you have a horse you must respect. She’s probably the speed of the speed in this field, but she’s not one-dimensional and doesn’t need a solo lead to win. Finally, #1 Echo Sound is 15-1 on the morning line but nevertheless could surprise to win or finish as a value piece in exactas and trifectas. She blew away stakes horses at Monmouth Park in her return from a layoff last time and her career-best race to date was her win in last summer’s Grade 3 Victory Ride Stakes at Saratoga, where she crushed a solid field under similar circumstances when making her second start off a layoff. This will be a tough task, but the price will be right.

The Play: Bet on #1 Echo Sound (15-1) to win and play her in exacta and trifecta boxes with #7 Ways and Means (9-5), and #10 R Disaster (5-1).