Happy ending? Someone bet $200,000 Sunday on a Canterbury Park horse

Made at an off-track facility, the bet was larger than every wager combined placed at Canterbury Park on Sunday afternoon.

July 23, 2012 at 2:49PM
Heliskier in 2012 (courtesy Coady Photography)
Heliskier (courtesy Coady Photography) (Howard Sinker/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Heliskier in 2012 (courtesy Coady Photography)
(Howard Sinker/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

There is a wildly successful 3-year-old at Canterbury Park named Heliskier, who won his fifth race in five starts on Sunday afternoon.

The horse hasn't been seriously challenged in any of its races, and was as close to a sure thing as left the starting gate during Sunday's race card.

It was such a sure thing that someone placed a $200,000 bet on Heliskier to win the fourth race, the MTA Stallion Auction Stakes. Yes, that's a two and five zeroes.

No, it wasn't the nervous, sweaty guy sitting next to you at the track: The bet was made through an off-track location, according to a Canterbury official.

Some perspective: The entire amount bet on all 11 races at Canterbury was about $146,000.

Also, the bet skewed the odds that the horses that finished second and third left the starting gate at odds of 206-1 and 235-1.

According to Canterbury Live blogger Jim Wells, this is the second time this year a $200,000 bet was made on Heliskier. Both were made just before post time.

The horse went off at the lowest allowable odds, 1-20, and paid $2.10 on a $2 win bet, which means the $200,000 bettor made $10,000 on the play. Because the horse paid the same amount to place and show, a Canterbury source speculated the person making the bet may have gotten a rebate of some sort as an incentive to place a win bet

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Whatever the case, Upload recommends two things:

Remember the name Heliskier if the horse goes on to bigger and better things.

Don't try this at home. The practice of making such huge bets, usually on a horse to show, is called bridge jumping. You don't have to be a genius to figure out why.

about the writer

about the writer

Howard Sinker

Digital Sports Editor

Howard Sinker is digital sports editor at startribune.com and curates the website's Sports Upload blog. He is also a senior instructor in Media and Cultural Studies at Macalester College in St. Paul.

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