Welcome to Noel Michaels’ Weekend Winners, the place to go for weekend greatest bets and spot performs from veteran handicapper and tournament-play pioneer Noel Michaels. Test again each week for a few highlighted alternatives designed that will help you money a couple of bets and make some cash. Noel’s alternatives have been featured nearly all over the place horse racing picks might be discovered, together with in print within the Every day Racing Type, The HorsePlayer Journal and American Turf Month-to-month, on-line at DRF.com, Twinspires.com and USRacing.com, from the paddock on-track at Arlington Worldwide Racecourse, and on the air on HRTV, TVG, NYC OTB Additional, NYRA’s SatuTalking Horses, and on broadcast TV on WAVE-3 Louisville, ABC KOLO-8 in Reno, Nevada, and channel 72 Lengthy Island Cablevision.
Six Newbie Betting Instruments
- Begin easy with an straightforward information for how one can guess on horse racing.
- Unsure what that phrase means? Horse racing terminology is a language of its personal. Enable us translate for you
- What the heck is a velocity determine? This newbie’s information to hurry figures has all the pieces you’ll want to know.
- Betting on horse racing might be intimidating. Workforce ABR put collectively some Dos and Don’ts for the brand new fan getting began betting on racing.
- All of us make errors in the case of betting on horse racing, listed here are eight classes discovered from expertise.
- Work out how a lot every guess will price prematurely with our Playing Calculator, offered by NYRA Bets.
Saturday, Jan. 18
Truthful Grounds, Race 11, $175,000 Louisiana Stakes offered by Relyne GI by Hagyard, 6 p.m. ET
Older horses take to the monitor within the Grade 3 Louisiana Stakes as a area of 10 is about to go 1 1/16 miles on the principle monitor. There’s an abundance of velocity entered on this race and that ought to assist the probabilities of the horses hoping to return from off the tempo, together with the favourite, #1 Hit Present, who already seems just like the horse to beat. Hit Present exits a considerably sub-par effort when third within the Grade 2 Clark Stakes Offered by Norton Healthcare final time, however he loved an distinctive season all through 2024 in races like this one with wins in three straight graded stakes between August and October. This race units up for his late-running, stalking fashion. One other nearer coming from even farther again within the pack, #5 Skinner may also get setup and will probably be harmful if in a position to replicate his effort from final time when he received Del Mar’s Grade 3 Native Diver Stakes. If you’re searching for a straight win guess, Skinner’s morning-line odds are higher than Hit Present and he may very well be a better option with Truthful Grounds’ main rider Jose Ortiz aboard for brand new coach Cherie DeVaux, who’s successful 31% of her begins at this meet. You’ll be able to spherical out your exotics on this race with #2 Warrior Johny, a stakes winner at Parx Racing two races in the past who completed third behind Saudi Crown in Truthful Grounds’ Tenacious Stakes at this distance final month and boasts very quick latest velocity figures.
The Play: Wager on #5 Skinner (9-2) to win and play him in exacta and trifecta bins with #1 Hit Present (5-2), and #2 Warrior Johny (10-1).
Truthful Grounds, Race 12, $250,000 Lecomte Stakes, 6:30 p.m. ET
Three-year-olds on the street to the Kentucky Derby Offered by Woodford Reserve take heart stage within the Grade 3 Lecomte Stakes to see which of the 14 entrants can take the following step. Let’s decide an upset on this spot with a runner that could be a large overlay on the tote board in #5 Optical, a colt who is available in with two wins at Churchill Downs together with a 14-length maiden win in September and an allowance win final time over McAfee, the half-brother to soon-to-be champion filly Thorpedo Anna who was the morning-line favourite within the Jerome Stakes earlier than being scratched. Blinkers come on for Optical, the horse exhibits a bunch of blazing exercises in preparation for this stretch-out, and there’s clearly loads of upside right here at 20-1 odds on the morning line. One other horse within the race with two wins and important upside is #11 Disco Time, who has received impressively in each begins up to now for coach Brad Cox. The favourite will probably be #13 Constructed primarily based on his Truthful Grounds win a month in the past within the Gun Runner Stakes with a quick velocity determine. A repeat shouldn’t be out of attain on this spot, however he’s drawn out within the parking zone from this broad submit place and he’s unlikely to get away with homicide once more as we speak on one other straightforward unpressured tempo.
The Play: Wager #5 Optical (20-1) to win and play him in exacta and trifecta bins with #11 Disco Time (9-2) and #13 Constructed (3-1).
