Anchorage Daily News

Next month's Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race may boast its biggest field ever.

Despite 18 mushers who pulled out of the 1,100-mile sled dog marathon to Nome before Thursday's deadline -- allowing them to salvage 53 percent of their entry fee -- the 96 racers remaining should constitute the biggest field in race history.

The 2004 race holds that distinction with 87 starters.

Typically, some mushers drop out between now and the March 1 start, but anyone who does will sacrifice their entire $3,000 entry fee.

Iditarod officials raised the entry fee for this year's race from $1,860 to $3,000. As a result, they'll collect nearly $300,000 in entry fees.

Eighty-two mushers started Iditarod last year.

"I think mushers understand the cost of everything has gone up," said Chas St. George, Iditarod's director of public relations.

With mushers leaving every two minutes from the official start on March 2, it will take more than three hours to get everyone on the trail.

The big field has also meant race officials are spending more time this year stocking checkpoints with dog food and other supplies. Three days of supply flights end today and will deliver an estimated 90 tons to the checkpoints, St. George said.

"This is a tremendous field," St. George said. "We have rookies in this field, who have accomplished a phenomenal amount before entering the Iditarod."

One of those rookies is William Kleedehn of Carcross, Yukon Territory, who's finished runner up twice in nine Yukon Quests.

Among the prominent mushers to pull out of the Iditarod:

• Linwood Fiedler: The 54-year-old veteran Willow musher has finished 14 of the 16 Iditarods he's started, but he scratched two of his last three starts -- 2002 at Ruby and 2007 at the Iditarod checkpoint. Family issues caused him to pull out of this year's race.

Fiedler has never finished outside the top 26, and his last two finishes have been his best -- sixth in 2003 and runner-up to Doug Swingley in 2001.

• Melanie Gould: The Talkeetna musher had consistently improved with each Iditarod start, from a 2000 rookie run in which she finished 64th to 18th in 2006. She scratched last year at Rainy Pass.

• Sonny Lindner: The veteran 58-year-old musher from Two Rivers raced his first Iditarod in 1978, but this year has decided to focus on the All-Alaska Sweepstakes that begins March 26 in Nome with a winner-takes-all $100,000 purse.

Lindner has finished 13 Iditarods, including a runner-up finish in 1981, less than an hour behind friend Rick Swenson. Every Lindner finish has been among the top 25.

• Tollef Monson: Perhaps the surprise of last year's Iditarod, Monson, 29, finished 10th and won the most improved musher award. He piloted what was considered the "B" team of fellow Kotzebue musher John Baker, but ran ahead of Baker much of the race.

Eventually, Baker finished eighth. Monson's run was a huge improvement from his two previous Iditarod finishes -- 44th in 2006 and 62nd in 2004.

"He's just a hard-working kid that's really good at driving dogs," fellow Kotzebue musher Ed Iten said last year in Anvik. "I think he's really enjoying it and really paying attention to what it takes to put it all together."

Monson won the sportsmanship in addition to the most improved musher awards last year.

• Mike Williams: The veteran Anvik musher has finished all 13 Iditarods he's started, with a best of 18th in 1997. He's twice won the Iditarod's most inspirational musher award.

• Tim Osmar: Ending his 22-year ironman streak of consecutive Iditarod finishes, the Ninilchik musher pulled out because he has yet to fully recover from a broken ankle suffered last summer when he fell from his four-wheeler battling the 50,000-acre Caribou Hills wildfire that threatened his cabin.

Replacing Osmar as the visual guide to legally-blind musher Rachael Scdoris of Oregon is former Iditarod champion Joe Runyan.

Mushers Who've Pulled Out of the Iditarod

Peter Cohrs, Germany; Linwood Fiedler, Willow; Melanie Gould, Talkeetna; Al Hardman, Michigan; Mark Ibsen, Montana; Kent Kaltenbacher, Wasilla; Sonny Lindner, Two Rivers; Rob Loveman, Montana; Richard MacAuley, Michigan; Tollef Monson, Kotzebue; Tim Osmar, Ninilchik; Gary Paulsen, Willow; Bill Pinkham, Colorado; Lynda Plettner, Wasilla; Kurt Reich, Colorado; Becca Ross, Trapper Creek; Kelly Williams, Two Rivers; Mike Williams, Aniak.

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