By Golly Luke Bayley It WORKS….!
On July 18, 2020 I attended the pocket course “Picking Winners with Astrology: The Astrology of Horse Racing” presented by Luke Bayley (video). Bayley’s years of research and vigorous testing of results with this method which assigns each of the horse’s names to one and/or more planets and then analyses the placements of significant planets in the race chart to determine if the chart is suitable to use to predict a winner. Like all astrology, we must start with a suitable chart, and Bayley particularly emphasizes this if we are to use his astrological technique to pick and bet on a winner with confidence.
ASSESSING A RACE CHART
Bayley says that the chart’s suitability will indicate whether to use his technique. If the chart is good, then one can apply Bayley’s techniques with sufficient confidence to bet money on a possible winner or within the top 3 (trifecta). For Bayley’s technique to work, the chart should be a good chart, otherwise he recommends not to bother and to wait or find suitable astrological conditions for a good chart.
USING THE HORSE’S NAME TO ASSIGN PLANET(S)
If the race chart is a good chart, we will need the names of the racehorses. As much as horses are strong and magnificent, they are sensitive, sentient beings and can often unexpectedly come down with sudden health ailments and/or unexpected injuries, such as with their breathing, colds, infections, or sprains to name just a few. Because of this, the submission deadline for veterinarians, horse trainers and owners to deem a horse fit to race and then enter it into a specific race is quite close to the race date, just a few days prior to race day after which the race program is released with the names of the competing horses.
In this article, I apply Bayley’s teachings to examine two past major horse races that occurred in the Fall of 2020 in the U.S.A and compare the outcome with the charts cast for the race off-times (actual time the races started versus the program time as typically horse tracks have lag times between their program and off-times).
The two races I am examining are The Kentucky Derby, Sept. 5, 2020 @7:03 pm in Louisville, Kentucky, and The Breeder’s Cup, Race 12 The Classic on Nov. 7, 2020 @5:19 pm in Lexington, Kentucky.
I cast a chart for each race and analysed both. As it turned out, only one race chart was suitable The Breeder’s Cup Classic (Race 12) had a chart that met Bayley’s criteria. I have also included my application of Bayley’s principles to The Kentucky Derby’s chart to illustrate its unsuitability.
BAYLEY’S TECHNIQUE
To briefly summarize the influences on the race’s outcome as discussed in this article, use the race chart if, and only if:
One or more of Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus or Neptune* are within a 4-degree orb of the Midheaven in the race chart. Watch Bayley’s lecture for why Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Pluto do not seem to influence the race outcome, and are not considered significant influences.
*consider aspects of 2-to-4-degree orb to significant race chart planets
*exclude other aspects (unless they are aspecting the race chart's planets on the MC)
Do not use the chart, if there is a major pattern (kite, grand-square, or grand-trine grand-stellium),
INFLUENCES ON THE RACE’S OUTCOME
The Kentucky Derby, Sept. 5, 2020, program time 6:45 pm, off-time 7:03 pm, in Louisville, Kentucky (See KY Derby chart above)
The race chart included is the 6:45 pm program time, which is what we would have used to cast the race chart ahead of time to decide if it’s a suitable chart. As we can see, regardless of if we cast the chart using the program time of 6:45 pm or the 7:03 pm off-time, this race chart does not have any of the important planetary influences, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus nor Neptune, as they are in Capricorn (Saturn at 25 and Jupiter at 17 Capricorn), nowhere near the Midheaven at 03 Sagittarius 02’. Eighteen minutes later, when the race started at 7:03 pm, the race chart’s MC is at 7 Sagittarius. There is no point in going further to try to continue to the next step in Bayley’s astrological method, which would have been to examine the horse’s names and then try to pick a winner. However, we can go through Bayley’s method by looking at the next race chart - Race 12, The Breeder’s Cup Classic.
The Breeder’s Cup - Race 12 The Classic: Nov. 7, 2020, program time 5:15 pm, off-time 5:19 pm in Lexington, Kentucky (see Breeders Cup Chart above)
As we can see Saturn at 26 Capricorn 37’ is within a 2-degree orb applying to the Midheaven at 24 Capricorn 53’; Jupiter at 22 Capricorn 04’ conjunct Pluto at 22 Capricorn 47’ is separating from the MC, also within a 2 degree orb
Pluto would not be considered on its own, but because it is conjunct Jupiter we should take note of it. We have two of the planetary influencers on the Midheaven, which means we will be looking for some kind of blended planetary connection to the names of our ten horses in this race.
(Note, that if you find a good race chart, there may be just a couple of days to research and assign planetary rulerships to the horses’ names as the program is usually released just a few days leading up to race day).
The horse names with their saddle cloth numbers are:
1 Tacitus
2 Tiz The Law
3 By My Standards
4 Tom’s D’Etat
5 Title Ready
6 Higher Power
7 Global Campaign
8 Improbable
9 Authentic
10 Maximum Security
I love this part of learning about and analysing horses’ names, as it’s also an opportunity to practice planetary rulerships. I used Rex E. Bills' The Rulership Book, Lee Lehman’s The Book of Rulerships, and Deb Houlding’s The Houses: Temples of the Sky.
A likely winning horse’s name should have a Saturn, Jupiter/Pluto connection. I also include the program listed odds otherwise known in horse-racing as morning line odds (MLO) to add into my analysis consideration.
Tacitus: Tacitus means silent, secret, hidden, occult according to website name-doctor. So, I assigned Neptune, and Pluto. I don’t think this would be a contender, since the name lacks Saturn which is significant in the race chart. His morning line odds (MLO) were 21.20. In horse racing the odds change and fluctuate as bets get made closer to the off time of a race.
Tiz The Law
By My Standards: Bills assigns standardization to Jupiter, and I was also inclined to assign Venus because of the personalized part “By My” in the name as the justification. I felt comfortable eliminating him as a top three contender. His morning line odds were 16.30.
Tom’s D’Etat
Title Ready: I assigned Sun and Mars associated with “Title” to Sun, and “Ready” as in being ready to win a title in competition to Mars. Since the odds were definitely against him with his MLO at 66.40, I felt comfortable eliminating Title Ready as a contender for the winner or as one of the top three placers.
Higher Power
Global Campaign: I assigned Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn to campaign, and Bills assigns Pluto (p.58) to groups associating global to groups, and Uranus to spheres (p.131). I included Jupiter because global involves expansion, and a campaign regardless of its type (military, advertising, marketing, promotion) requires organization (Saturn) and communication (Mercury). Note Mercury alone is not a horse predicting planetary influencer, but in this chart Mercury at 27 Libra 25’ is squaring Saturn. So far, Saturn, Jupiter, Pluto, Mercury, and Uranus are associated with this horse’s name. Although Uranus could be an influencer were it on the Midheaven, it’s not in our race chart (retrograde Uranus 8 Taurus 28’ on the Ascendant 11 Taurus 38’). Despite high odds of 25.20, could Global Campaign be a contender?
Improbable: Saturn and Mercury are both assigned to mathematics and mathematicians (Bills p. 85, Lehman p. 144). Lehman assigns Mercury to mathematics and mathematical skill to Saturn in 9th. Here we see Mercury and Saturn in this horse’s name, and Mercury 27 Libra 25’ it
Authentic:
Maximum Security
In the race chart, Saturn at 26 Capricorn 37’ looks like a stronger influencer as the Midheaven at 24 Capricorn 53’ is applying to Saturn. In fact, the actual race time or off time was 5:18 pm which makes the Midheaven 25 Capricorn 50’ applying to a conjunction of 47 minutes or a little under 1 degree to Saturn. The Midheaven 24 Capricorn 53’ at 5:15 pm is separating within about 2 degrees of Pluto and almost 3 degrees of Jupiter, and at 5:18 pm the Midheaven 25 Capricorn 50’ is separating within 3-4 degrees of Pluto and Jupiter, respectively.
I have narrowed the 12 horses to three contenders.
Global Campaign represented by Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, Pluto (maybe
Uranus) MLO: 25.20,
Improbable represented by Saturn and Mercury MLO: 3.70
And Authentic represented by Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury (maybe Pluto) MLO: 4.20
Can we pick out a winner?
Taking the planetary significators for horse’s names into consideration with the 5:15 pm race chart, of these three horses which one could be the winner? Can we call out a clear winner?
Alternatively, using the off-time chart of 5:18 pm with MC Capricorn applying less than a degree to Saturn, separating 3-4 degrees respectively from Pluto conjunct Jupiter, and with the MLOs, can we make a judgement call for which horses will be placed in the top three?
Before watching the replay of The Classic, try testing yourself by making a judgement.
I am very glad that I attended Luke Bayley’s impressive talk and I thank him for sharing his work with IAA and the astrological community. When I was applying Bayley’s technique to the Breeder’s Cup chart, I could not help but think about house rulerships, and how Saturn is also ruler of the Capricorn MC, as well as 9th house, and how other significations like state or government is assigned to 10th house, and how this technique might work by including traditional house rulerships - something I’d like to explore. What I really appreciate and like about Bayley’s technique is its elegance.
Personally I am a huge animal advocate, but my partner is a big horse racing fan. Through him, I was introduced to horse-racing, so whenever possible, I like to, or at least offer my astrological services to support the aftercare and rehoming of retired or unsuccessful racehorses, and hope and pray that every horse gets to enjoy a long and healthy life that every serving animal deserves, and I believe should be their right.
