Kentucky Derby 2018

 This year’s analysis is brought to you by James, a practiced user of astrology for winning horse races and a winning client of “Your Lucky Times”TM! 

What A Lineup

The 2018 Kentucky Derby runs on Saturday, May 5th from Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky. Post time is 6:38 PM ET. However, the actual start of the race is more likely 6:50 PM ET.  Justify, is the 2-1 favorite and apparently has been the most impressive in his recent 6-furlong workouts. There are around ten other horses that are getting 20-1 odds or better creating a wide-open field.

The Day’s Aspects

Well, what do the planets have to say about the race this year and what aspects will they be making to any of the horse’s birth charts?  If we erect a natal chart for the time of the race we notice that Saturn, Pluto, Mars and the Moon are all in the sign of Capricorn, which trines a Taurus Sun.  The race chart has a Cancer MC, Libra ASC and a Pisces 5^th house cusp.

The Lucky Fifth House Cusp and the Stellium in Capricorn

The 5^th house cusp has been quoted by John Frawley in his book ‘Sports Astrology’ as an important cusp and degree for picking the winner of a horse race and name association. I didn’t see much of interest here for this race and this theory.  Looking at the chart of the time of the race, the stellium in Capricorn stands out the most to me.  So, this year in trying to predict the winner I am going to make the stellium (3 or more planets in a house) in Capricorn the focus of my analysis.

The Taurus Horses

The oldest horse in the race is ‘My Boy Jack’ born Jan 26^th 2015 and the youngest horse is ‘Mendelssohn’ born a few months later, on May 17^th 2015.  With no Capricorns or Virgos in the race but plenty of Taurus horses, (Capricorn, Taurus and Virgo are Earth signs), let’s have a look at a couple of Taurus horses and the aspects from the Capricorn stellium.

Mendelssohn was born May 17^th 2015 and Magnum Moon was born May 9^th 2015.  Both these Taurus horses have very good charts for the day of the race. Mendelssohn will have a very nice transiting Mars trine his natal Sun, and although we do not know what time the horse was born, we know on May 9^th 2015 the moon was in Taurus and Mendelssohn most likely has an aspect on the day to his moon. Maybe even a transiting Sun at 15 degrees of Taurus conjunct his moon!!!

The next horse, for me, has a very interesting chart. Magnum Moon, born May 9^th 2015.  I really like the fact that transiting retrograde Jupiter comes back to sit exactly opposite his natal Sun on race day. Jupiter opposing the Sun in Taurus often acts like a conjunction, especially since Jupiter is involved. 

If we look back at Magnum Moon’s last two starts on April 14^th he won with a transiting Mars conjunct his natal Pluto, and on March 17th he won with the transiting Sun and Moon sextile his natal Mars.  On Saturday, transiting Mars will be trine the midpoint of his natal Sun/Mars conjunction, the transiting Moon will be trine his progressed Sun.

The Winning Combination (Maybe)

Those are the two of the favorites I like.  Justify has Mars sextile Mercury and Bolt D’Oro has a Mercury conjunct Mars, too.  Probably can’t rule either of them out, but my money is going on Mendelssohn. 

The main reason I am going with Mendelssohn over Magnum Moon is that I have been betting a lot of horses lately with the transiting Mars trine natal Sun and it has been working well.  I am going to stick with what has been working.

Some Long Shots

For the long shots I would go with Solomini and Lone Sailor.  Solomini, born April 29^th 2015 is another Taurus horse, and with his natal Sun at 8 degrees of Taurus he will be getting a nice trine from transiting Saturn on race day.  This is a nice great to have for this longer race at a 1 ¼ miles.  And this horse loves to run from the back of the pack! 

For a really decent long-odds horse, we have to look at Lone Sailor, born March 30^th 2015.  Transiting Uranus will be exactly conjunct his natal Mars.   I have seen plenty of good upsets with this aspect.  And if we want to go with the name association of Pisces on the 5^th house cusp, Lone Sailor does come to mind!

Take It Easy and Have Fun

The usual caveats apply. Whatever you do, don’t bet more than $8-10 a day as Lucky Star says, and enjoy yourself!

James