This is the magic season for sled dog race fans in Alaska, and perhaps the world! After an exciting earl y season of mid-distance races, the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest ended last week, the Open World Championship Sled Dog Race starts next weekend, and the world-famous 1,100-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race begins the week after that, on Saturday, March 6!

 

The Open World Championship Sled Dog Race, considered the grandfather of all Alaskan races and the world's most challenging sprint race, is a dog-powered drag race through the streets of Anchorage, held in three 25-mile heats over three days. Held each February in conjunction with the Anchorage Fur Rendezvous, the race is organized and managed by volunteers of the Alaska Sled Dog Racing Association, or ASDRA. There are many exciting mushers entered again this year, such as the four-time defending champion Blayne "Buddy" Streeper, four-time champion Egil "Eagle" Ellis, and -- a rookie in this race -- four-time Iditarod champion Jeff King. Mushers are entered from all over Alaska, one each from Michigan and Minnesota, four Canadian provinces, and one team is from Germany. Don't miss the race referred to as "The NASCAR of Sled Dog Racing!"

The only slightly more sedate 1,100-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race will begin in Anchorage with a ceremonial start which brings together the most competitive long distance dog teams in the world: Lance Mackey, the reigning champion for the past three years; Jeff King again, the four-time champion who's finished in the top five eight times in the last ten years; Hans Gatt, who won the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest last week; last year's Yukon Quest champion, who placed second to Lance Mackey in the 2009 Iditarod, Sebastian Schnuelle; and many, many more world-class mushers. If the Rondy sprint is a drag race, the Iditarod is a tough, grueling road rally over mountain ranges, down frozen rivers, through dense forests, across desolate tundra and along miles of windswept coast. It truly is the "Last Great Race on Earth."

Olympic sled dog history

As the Winter Olympic competitions in Vancouver continue to rivet the world's attention, the question arises once again why sled dog racing is not a recognized Olympic sport. There's no easy answer to that question, but a sled dog race was a demonstration sport at the 1932 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, N.Y. Teams ran 25 miles each day for two days, and Alaska's own legendary Leonhard Seppala placed second behind the winner, a man who was to become Canada's most revered champion musher and the only sled dog musher in Canada's Sports Hall of Fame, a French Canadian from The Pas, Manitoba, named Emile St. Goddard.