A dog running the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest sled dog race died a few miles outside of Dawson City, according to a brief statement from the race Thursday.
The 6-year-old male named Firefly was from musher Yuka Honda's team. Preliminary necropsy results showed that Firefly had an enlarged heart and had ingested several booties, the statement said.
Honda reported the death to Yukon Quest race officials at 3:59 a.m. Thursday, according to the statement said.
Honda is a 44-year-old Yukon Quest race veteran who lives in the Whitehorse area. She also had a dog die in the 2007 Quest, when her team briefly got away and the 5-year-old choked on her own vomit, according to the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.
By Thursday evening, Honda was still in Dawson City — the race's halfway point, where all mushers must take a 36-hour break.
A spokeswoman for the Yukon Quest did not return several requests for comment Thursday.
During last year's Yukon Quest, a dog on Sébastien Dos Santos Borges' team died of a stomach hemorrhage.