Huntress Helena to Rescue by Whisker for Lucky Bridge Jumper

Mountaineer Casino Racetrack and Resort photo by Eclipse Sportswire
On Sept. 28 at Mountaineer Casino Racetrack and Resort in West Virginia in the fifth race, the track racecaller never said the name of any horse but one, a horse named Huntress Helena.
According to racetrack announcer Peter Berry, it was the first time he had ever done that. He even apologized to the connections of the winning horse. But there was a good reason that Berry’s eyes — and the eyes of the entire racetrack — were on Huntress Helena: someone had bet $100,000 on her to show (finish in the top three).
Huntress Helena was expected to win the 2-furlong (quarter-mile), claiming race fairly easily. She was the 2-to-5 favorite. But the amount of money bet on her to show was staggering. While there was about $105,000 bet on her to show, there was fewer than $5,000 bet in the show pool on all of the other horses combined. This is what is known as a negative show pool. In racetracker parlance, it’s known as bridge jumping.
Bridge jumpers create interesting betting opportunities for everyone else. When there’s a big negative show pool and the horse that attracted all of the money wagered runs out of the money, the other horses pay huge show payouts. Some gamblers like to cover every other horse to show in these situations and root for something crazy to happen. On Sept. 28 at Mountaineer, something crazy happened.
From the opening bell, Huntress Helena reared at the gate and bolted toward the stands. Berry exclaimed, “and she’s dead last! And there’s a lot of money in the show pool and she’s out of business! So look for some huge show payoffs here … ”
The heavy favorite was way out of contention. Then just as Berry trained his attention on the other horses to call the race, Huntress Helena kicked it into gear and surged forward on the far outside. Berry stopped calling the race and says “Well look, she’s still on the outside … what is going on here?”
After rearing in the gate, bolting and the jockey losing the irons, Huntress Helena improbably managed to get her nose in front to win a photo for third place - a surely agonizing photo for someone standing on the precipice of the proverbial bridge. 
For those who bet against Huntress Helena and the bridge jumpers, it was a heartbreaker of a finish … but they came close. For a few seconds, the fifth race at Mountaineer looked like it was going to be a textbook example of why it’s a good bet to play against bridge jumpers.
So how do you get in on that action? Well one thing you can do is follow the Bridge Jumper Alert account on twitter (@bridgejumper). Stu Slagle, a Canadian-based racing official, maintains the account. The tweets on the account are crowd sourced from the account’s 1,700 followers. Anyone who follows @bridgejumper can DM (send him a direct message) a negative show pool opportunity and the account will broadcast it. If you plan on following the account, do what you can to help add to the community by sharing the negative pools you run across at the races.
There’s a lot of great legend and lore of bridge jumpers at the racetrack, some of which I’ve written about here before and others have written about much better elsewhere. Whatever the story behind whoever bet all that money at little, old Mountaineer to show on Huntress Helena, I’m sure it’s a juicy one. We’ll have to wait and see if and how that tale gets told.
As for Berry, he tweeted after the race: “Cannot believe what I just witnessed.” And later: “Miracle.”

Cannot believe what I just witnessed. First time I've never called the race, just one horse.
— Peter Berry (@peterberry57) September 29, 2015