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MCGRATH - Tim Osmar spent the winter wondering when the state legislature was going to create the 28-hour day. He desperately needed the extra four hours. There are more Osmar-connected dogs in the 27th Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race than from any other kennels, and baby-sitting the herd in recent months often left him frazzled. In addition to the Clam Gulch musher's team, three other mushers began the 1,100-mile mush to Nome driving teams housed at his lot, and another musher was driving his dad's dogs. Dan Dent, Dario Daniels and Stephen Carrick were all mushing Tim Osmar-brand dogs. Linda Joy is racing dogs from the yard of Tim's father, Dean Osmar, the 1984 champion. "It's a ton of dogs," said Tim Osmar as he fed his resting team during his 24-hour layover here. "It's crazy, really." Osmar, 32, said his whole winter has been nuts. As supervisor of a 90-dog lot, his home was a circus, with handlers living in tight quarters, mushers coming and going, his wife, Tawny, trying to manage the couple's four young children, and what seemed like a round-the-clock training schedule. "I never got to bed until 5 a.m.," said Osmar. "It was hard to concentrate." Life was so wild that starting the race last Saturday seemed like starting a vacation. At the least he could focus on doing just one thing at a time. Tim Osmar is a well-known veteran of 13 Iditarods, all in-the-money top-20 finishes, including eight in the top 10. However, his 17th place last year was his worst finish ever, worth only $9,425 in prize money. He was disappointed in his performance and wondered how to beef up his Iditarod team without a ready cash flow since he also experienced a poor commercial fishing season. Dent, a Baltimore investment counselor, offered to help subsidize Osmar's kennel. Dent mushed to Nome as a tourist in 1996 on race founder Joe Redington's Iditarod Challenge, becoming friendly with Daniels, a member of the support crew. He moved into competition last year, renting a team from Osmar for the Copper Basin 300, then entered the Iditarod this year. Osmar saw Dent as a welcome patron saint, and as a source for adding new dogs to his team. "I've got lots of new bloodlines," said Osmar, who was in 20th place Friday afternoon. "It was a move to try to get some better dogs." Over the years, Redington frequently rented teams to inexperienced mushers to introduce them to the sport, and often helped outfit many cash-strapped mushers. And now it's common for top mushers to put a second team in the race to give their young dogs seasoning. This year, among the competitors using all or some of a front-runner's dogs are Sonny Lindner (Rick Swenson's), Matt Hayashida (Martin Buser's), Steve Crouch (DeeDee Jonrowe's), and Jeremy Gebhauer (Doug Swingley's). But no one comes close to matching Osmar for the sheer number of dogs on the trail. "I had a lot of help," Osmar said. "Then we had to feed the help. We had an army of help and an army of dogs." Jon Little, a Kasilof neighbor, who was running 40th Friday, said he had Thanksgiving dinner with Osmar's handlers. "It was a village," Little said. One handler, Randy Adkins, is a two-time Iditarod racer who placed 24th in 1995 and 29th in 1997. "It was definitely busy," said Adkins, who is currently serving as a race volunteer working with dropped dogs. "He's (Osmar) got a lot of responsibility." That responsibility ended when the mushers set out on the trail. Predictably, Osmar's team is faring best. Dent scratched in Skwentna after he broke up a dog fight and had his hands bitten so severely he was hospitalized. Carrick, an Australian, was short on leaders starting the race and lost his remaining leader to injury before scratching in McGrath. Daniels, of Bird Creek, and Joy, of Kasilof, are still on the trail, near the back of the pack. Osmar hoped to make a move after leaving McGrath, 415 miles into the race. He had to drop four dogs early, but felt gains could be made. "Maybe I've had my hard luck already," he said.
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