Rides with 4 Iditarod mushers off the market as auction swings into action

Spots in the sleds of three Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race mushers had sold online for top dollar by Tuesday, as had a $25,000 race-watching package, with about three weeks left in the annual Idita-Rider auction.

A Texas woman and a Hawaii-based shipping company quickly put down the $7,500 this year to buy the sled spots outright with mushers DeeDee Jonrowe of Willow and Two Rivers couple Aliy Zirkle and Allen Moore, according to Iditarod officials. Wendy Brott, a recently retired Ohio teacher, and her husband bought the $25,000 race package before bidding began, and she selected four-time Iditarod champion Martin Buser, of Big Lake, to ride with during the 2017 ceremonial race start in Anchorage.

"I just really appreciate his spirit," Brott, 61, said of Buser. "He's really someone I would like to meet."

Brott, 61, said she has followed the Iditarod online in the past, and shared it with her high school classes.

In 2017, she and her husband will visit Alaska for her first time and, as part of her race package, she will attend musher meetings in Anchorage, ride with Buser during the ceremonial start and later the Brott couple will fly to the Iditarod checkpoint near Perrin's Rainy Pass Lodge to stay two nights and check in the first five mushers.

"It's a dream come true for me," Brott said. "Ever since I was 20, I just wanted to go to Alaska."

Those who bid for just the Idita-Rider seat will relax in the basket of their selected musher's sled during the ceremonial start in Anchorage, which traditionally stretches over 11 miles of trail but was shrunk to just 3 miles during the last Iditarod race due to a lack of snow.

By Tuesday afternoon, about 80 bids had been made on the 72 remaining mushers for the Idita-Rider program. Matthew Failor of Willow earned the most bids at six and tied for the highest bid of the remaining mushers, at $2,000, despite never finishing higher than 15th in his five Iditarods. After two bids, Nicolas Petit of Girdwood also hit $2,000.

Reigning Iditarod champion Dallas Seavey, of Willow, had received only three bids by Tuesday afternoon, the highest at $1,000. His father, two-time champion Mitch Seavey, who placed second in the 2016 race, had received just one bid, and it was the $750 minimum.

Matson, the shipping company and an official Iditarod sponsor, bought the spots in the sleds of Zirkle and Moore outright. Matson purchased Horizon Lines Inc. Alaska operations in 2015, and Horizon Lines had long sponsored the race as well as Zirkle's and Moore's kennel, said Laurie Larson, Matson executive assistant to the vice president. The tradition continues under the new ownership, she said.

Larson said the sled seats would go to the company's chief executive and a board member this year. In the past, the company had also given the spots to members of management, customers, employees and the Special Olympics of Washington, she said. On the day the auction ends, she'll typically go online and purchase more Idita-Rider seats for the company.

"The very last day is really the most important day," she said. "As soon as that day comes around, I sit at my computer all day and start grabbing Idita-Riders."

Diane Johnson, Iditarod education director, said Beverley Nelms, of Texas, purchased the spot in Jonrowe's sled this year and had been doing so for many years in the past, as well.

The Idita-Rider auction closes on Jan. 20, and the closing times on different items vary throughout the day.

Johnson said the money earned goes toward the cost of the race. Last year, the Idita-Rider program earned $207,224. In 2015, it netted $231,571. Johnson said that the turnout for the auction so far was typical.

"The real action comes in the last week," she said.