Anchorage Daily News

SLED DOG RACING

Sheep Mountain 150 field filling up fast

Three-time and defending Iditarod champion Lance Mackey is among three dozen mushers entered in the Sheep Mountain 150, which kicks off the sled-dog racing season next month -- if snow eventually falls in Southcentral.

MUSHING

Idita-rider auction starts Sunday at $500

Want to take an 11-mile ride in the sled of three-time Iditarod champion Lance Mackey?

Rondy to track mushers with GPS

Like the longer Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, the Fur Rendezvous World Championship Sled Dog Race will track sprint mushers step by step using GPS tracking when the race kicks off Feb. 26 during the 75th Fur Rendezvous celebration.

Travel costs leave mushers on ice

Team Norway, a tight-knit group of Scandinavian dog mushers whose talent helped fuel the international appeal of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, is staying home this year.

Read 10 years of stories about the Iditarod

Peninsula mushers see more porcupines while training

With winter weather fast approaching, Peninsula dog mushers have already begun training their teams for the coming season. But some have gotten off to a prickly start.

King will run Fur Rondy sprint dog races for the first time

Four-time Iditarod champion Jeff King announced Thursday he's entering February's Fur Rendezvous World Championship in a bid to add sprint racing to his array of titles in long and middle distance sled dog racing.

Mackey's back in Yukon Quest

Defending Iditarod champion Lance Mackey has signed up to return to another long-distance sled dog race he's conquered -- next year's running of the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race.

SLED DOG RACING

Iditarod musher from Unalakleet awarded $10,000 grant

A Unalakleet musher whose grandfather participated in the original Serum Run of 1925 has been awarded $10,000 as winner of the Seppala Heritage Grant.

SLED DOG RACING

Yukon Quest announces purse of $150,000

The Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race moved this week to set the purse for the 2010 race after last year's was cut 23 percent as the national economic crisis hurt fund raising for the 1,000-mile race between Fairbanks and Whitehorse.

SPRINT MUSHING

Rondy will have a record purse

Months before the first dog breaks into a sprint, organizers of the Fur Rendezvous World Championship Sled Dog on Friday announced a record purse of $80,000 for next year’s race.

SLED-DOG RACING

Sign up for next March's Iditarod on Saturday

The race is more than eight months away, but mushers can sign up for the 38th Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race beginning 9:30 a.m. Saturday at race headquarters, Mile 2.2 of Knik Road in Wasilla.

Quest officials move up start date to lure racers

Next winter's Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race will start a week earlier in February, making the possibility of a grueling back-to-back double with the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race more feasible than ever.

PETA takes dog deaths rumor and runs with it

As if it weren't painful enough to lose two canine traveling companions to hypothermia during this year's Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, Wasilla's Lou Packer now finds himself publicly accused -- in the absence of any evidence -- of somehow causing the deaths of two additional dogs.

Iditarod code dictates musher's actions on the trail

As an evil cold settled over the Innoko River country and the winds roared across its wild desolation, Blake Matray knew his Iditarod dream was dying, and he let it go.

Iditarod 37 coverage

Last musher hits Nome; sixth dog death reported

The Iditarod reached the end of the trail early Tuesday morning with a Red Lantern winner from Michigan and the most dead dogs in more than a decade.

Live standings: Musher leaderboard

Iditarod 37 coverage

Burmeister wins 2 race awards

Except for the half-dozen mushers still trudging toward Nome, the racing was over and tales of the trail held sway Sunday night at the Iditarod Finishers Banquet in Nome.

PETA calls for investigation into dog deaths

Live standings: Musher leaderboard

Iditarod 37 coverage

SLED DOG RACING

Rasey tops at Tozier

Racing on half a foot of new snow, Kris Rasey claimed the 8-dog title Sunday in the Norma Rasmussen Memorial Challenge at Tozier Track. She completed the 8.1-mile course in 26 minutes, 36 seconds.

Two more reach Nome in Iditarod

Jen Seavey and Tom Thurston reached the end of the trail Sunday, arriving in Nome to complete their 1,100-mile Iditarod journeys.

Ellis wins record 9th North American sled dog title

Willow musher Egil Ellis put together an astonishing run Sunday on the final day of the Open North American Championships in Fairbanks to beat rival Buddy Streeper -- and legendary George Attla.

Iditarod purse slashed whopping 35 percent

Pity Sonny Lindner, who finished 11th in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Twelve months ago, 11th place earned Zack Steer of Sheep Mountain $36,600. This year, the same effort will net the finisher $21,900 -- or $14,700 less.

2 dead dogs had fluid in their lungs

Iditarod 37 coverage

2 dead Iditarod dogs had fluid in their lungs

Omen and Maynard, the two dogs that died late this week in the Iditarod, had fluid in their lungs, race marshal Mark Nordman reported Saturday.

Number of dog deaths on Iditarod Trail is troubling