Fairbanks, AK - Three of this year’s top four Yukon Quest teams will go on to race in this year’s Iditarod – Alaska’s “other” long distance sled dog race. All top four teams are planning long-term Yukon Quest careers for their kennels as well.
It took Allen Moore three years to claim a Yukon Quest win, but he says it’s likely he’ll be back for another race next year. “Well, you never know, it’s been three in a row, so it’s probably a pretty good chance,” he smiles. Moore crossed the finish line with eleven of his fourteen starting dogs. He’ll now set his sights on the Iditarod, which starts March second. “So, we tried to run all the dogs that were in our kennel," he explains. "From that group of dogs, 36 or 38, we’ll choose for Iditarod.
The top ones will go with Aliy and the young ones will go with me.” Aliy is Moore’s wife and 2000 Quest Champion, Aliy Zirkle. Moore has made a career of training up the young dogs at their kennel for competitive runs in mid-distance races as well as the Quest and the Iditarod. During his layover in Two Rivers Sunday night, Moore talked up his leaders, Quito and Olivia, who have run on his team since hi rookie Quest two years ago. “They’re kind of our super stars," he nods. "They’ve run both races every years since and done very well. So that’s our go to dogs.”
One dog that knows the Quest, perhaps better than any other is Walter, a nine year old black husky with brown and white eyebrows and nose. He goes everywhere with Hugh Neff. When Neff pulled across the finish line in second place in this year’s Quest, the Tok musher made a point to praise Walter. “Make sure you get a picture of Walter," he pointed to the dog. "This is his last race. He’s got probably 35,000 miles on him, so he’s been around the block.”
Walter has finished six Yukon Quests and three Iditarods. In 2011, Neff nearly lost Walter after he fell into deep overflow outside of the Central checkpoint. This year, a tired Neff came into Circle with Walter running on the team. Neff is skipping out on this year’s Iditarod. Instead, he’ll take his leaders, George and Jewel to Norway to race in the 600-plus mile Finnmarkslopet next month. Neff himself has finished 13 Yukon Quests. He hasn’t yet decided if he’ll try for a fourteenth next year. "I probably might give the Quest a break and do a race, a native race. Everyone who knows me, knows I'm a native wannabe. I try to do go to any village I can, so I might do a race in Unalalkleet next year." he says
One musher who is definitely returning to the Yukon Quest is Brent Sass. “Are you gonna see me again? You’re never gonna get rid of me is I think the biggest statement there." "Yeah, I’m coming back, I'll be back every year until I can't tun this race anymore or at least a Wild and Free team will be here for … for years and years to come.” This year’s third place finisher shed tears of joy at the finish line. It’s the highest he’s placed in seven Quests. "I spent eight or nine years trying to build a dog team that could do this," he says, "and they showed they got what it takes, I'm really, really, really proud of them."
Sass put two young dogs, Celia and Sound, in lead early on in the race and the two led the team for more than 900 miles to Fairbanks from Whitehorse. Upon finishing, the Eureka musher presented both dogs with raw steak, buried his face in their muzzles and praised them for a job well done.
Celia and Sound were instrumental in strengthening what was already a good friendship between Sass and this year’s fourth place finisher, Jake Berkowitz. The two dogs led Berkowtiz’s leaders, Pixie and Mullet over Eagle Summit this year. This is Pixie’s second Quest with Berkowitz. "Pixie’s real young and that’s her brother Mullet with her. Yeah she’s got a lot of races left in her. She's just four years old," says Berkowitz.
The Big lake musher says he and his lead dogs will likely be back for another Quest in the future. "It won’t be next years, just because we have other plans for next year." he says, "But there are things we'd like to conquer better and obviously improve every year.” More than half of the field is still on the trail, stretched out across early 200 miles between Fairbanks and Circle. They’ll continue to come through the finish cute on the Chena River through the end of the week.