PallasAthene - I imagine you must be jumping up and down with joy. Well done to you, Amelia, Ficina, and those who tipped 'Don't Push it'!

I do wonder about the mortality rate this year though - so many horses were falling at the fences. I couldn't bear to watch it at the end.

Thank you : )
I couldn't watch until the end..I just listened.
I'm in profit by the exact amount of my overdue gas bill
And the astro group doubled their money so smiles all round.

It was definitely pluto..Rx.. Don't Push It, Black Apalachi 2nd, State of Play 3rd.. and will check jupiter again for Big Fella Thanks 4th.

Amelia did really well, a win and a place, congratulations!
Looking forward to next big one!

Very interesting, congratulations!!

Thanks Deb and don't worry, although some of those falls looked pretty horrific and only 14 runners actually finished, all jockeys and horses came back ok.

Well done to Amelia and PA too. Interesting that we picked the winner using different methods.

Same to you Ficina! Yes, I think when different methods lead to the same name.. we're on to something. Especially for the big races. Pooling resources and insight is the best thing about forums, so thanks to Deb for making this possible. None of us would be in contact otherwise!

And humble thanks and utmost respect to Urania for guiding us all.

I also wondered whether there would be a false start. I remember we had one a few years ago with a chart that had Uranus on the ascendant - I think it was on the ascendant, but it could have been another angle, I didn't keep the chart. Is there a way to check the last time the Grand National had a false start, or does anyone else remember?

Thanks for letting me know about the horses and fallen riders Ficina.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/date ... 216143.stm
3 April 1993 might be a chart worth looking at.
And a bomb warning in 1997 led to a postponement.

Hi Pallas Athene,

I'm curious in what way the Mercury refranation discussed in the horary section can be related to the Grand National. Now the races have ended, does it show up in the results?

No, not that I can see.
It only applied to the specific profit horary I posted on the horary forum.

unless..There were indications of a potential female win but no mares in the race. Mercury ruled the AC and MC.. There was a female jockey, she finished but didn't win. The female trainer didn't win either.... so maybe that was the refranation playing out???

Sounds interesting about the female jockey, could be the refranation.

I'm glad it at least out worked out in the specific horary .

I think when different methods lead to the same name.. we're on to something

I agree. We should do this more often, each using our favourite techniques and betting on the ones that get the most hits in total!

I should be happy with my result but, of course, I?m not. Only 100% accuracy in prediction makes me truly happy! Still I was quite pleased with my definite no list. Anyway, I promised I get back with an explanation of my predictions, so I am. I won?t list every horse just some common themes.

Here goes:
As mentioned I used actual birthcharts compared with the race chart, especially the MC from start time to estimated end of the race. The only problem is that there are birthdates but no times, so horses' Asc/MC aren?t available. And the moon is subject to 6 degrees error either way. Pity; I reckon with them as well it really would work 100% . I don?t usually do the big races, just too many horses to look at and the birthdates start to get too close together so without the Moon information it is difficult to separate them.

Anyway, this race chart had 3 aspects to the MC ( Mars, Moon and Pluto), but only the Moon ?applied? to the MC rather than separated during the race and only if it started on time. However, it seemed that these planets were close enough in orb to be worth focusing on.

Because the horses were all born between 1997 and 2003, there are some common themes. I was worried that the race might start a few minutes late, and if so Pluto in many of the horses? charts would rest on the race IC. In fact it was only slightly delayed and only the older horses were affected by this. I wrote most of them off for that reason. However Neptune was more of a problem as in many charts it opposed the race Mars. I only considered this a significant obstacle if the horse had personal planets in hard aspect to both, especially if applying. I also discounted horses with other bad Mars aspects especially to Sun and or Jupiter? in the GN, falling is always a risk

I didn?t focus too much on Saturn Uranus and Neptune in the race chart as positive aspects to Saturn would be outweighed by negative ones to Neptune. I used it only to eliminate bad Mars?s again. In this case I didn?t put too much emphasis on Venus and Mercury because they were in 9th and thus not able to aspect MC. Jupiter and Sun I hesitated about. I had to balance their offsetting effects with rest of testimonies.

So 1997, 1998, 1999 horses were generally no nos. Of the 1999s, King Johns castle ? highly favoured by others when I was doing the exercise - did not have a good chart. Connas castle was better, but not as good as some of the others. However, Black Apalachi I discounted in this group. But it had a Mercury sextile at 7 degrees Aries which I think saved it and overcame the Mars squares which were separating ones not applying.

2000 horses have generally done well in the last few years, not just in GN ( as they were mostly born with Jupiter Mars and Saturn together). 2009 was no exception. But in 2009 the race Mars was placed elsewhere and supported horse like Mon Mome. Still these are a great batch of horses so I went for the ones born early ( February ? State of Play and Cloudy Bay) and late ( June ? Don?t push it and Priest?s leap). These proved good choices. Don?t push it was a top pick as it had Sun/Venus progressed in mid Gemini- a possible reward aspect and also a possible Moon trine the MC . In mid/late April I quite liked Character Building (due to a Saturn trine and some nice Venus/Jupiter Sun connections), but also Vic Venturi and Mon Mome . In the end I think it was a Moon square that did for the latter.

2001 I got the most wrong. Natal Pluto was definitely out of the picture for these horses but Neptune wasn?t. Generally the charts looked weak or risky. I picked Nozic as it had Jupiter at 10 Gemini. I thought it would overcome progressed Mercury/Sun/Moon in early Taurus square chart Mars, but it didn?t ? could be that the Moon was really a few degrees later. It didn?t fall but the rider came off. I also liked Dream Alliance as it had Jupiter near the chart MC. But with the late start it was separating. It didn?t fall though either- just ran out of steam.

2002. Big fella thanks was the best of these 4. And so it proved. Though it was a hard call between it and Can?t buy time.

2003. only 4 horses again. Tricky trickster had some promise but I was ambivalent as its Mars was conjoining the chart Neptune but supported by its Saturn. It did make it round but not fast enough.

The charts I mentioned as interesting were Erics Charm (1998) and Piraya. The first because there was a lot of Jupiter. Ha ha! it led at the start but didn?t get far! Piraya (2003) just looked like a good bet as the Moon could be on the race MC and Jupiter was in conjunction with the race Mars without the Neptune downside.

Just to give you an indication of how what some of the horses I discounted looked like here are a couple of fallers:
My Will had Sun sextile the chart Mc BUT Mars opp Neptune and square Mars/Jupiter. Fell at 4th
Pablo du Charmil had Jupiter conjoining prog Sun and chart Mars all opp its Neptune. And it had Mars on IC square its Sun. And some diff Saturn aspects. Fell at 2nd
Arbor supreme had lots of aspects but Mars was square Mars . And Saturn on chart Mc was opp Moon. Fell at 15th

For future research and reference:

Official ( not actual) start times in the past were

1993-2004 15.45
2005 16.10 due to royal wedding
2006 16.10 again
2007 16.15 with a load of false starts ( shades of 1993)
2008 onwards 16.15