Copper Basin 300--2020

It is not over-over but despite some confusion on the tracker I am pretty sure the top five are in. Nic Petit finished some time ago and scored a three-pete, his third top place in this race for three years running, similar to what Pete Kaiser, last year's I'rod Champ, did in the Kuskokwim. The exact order the other four came in is still not clear but the top five are as I had begun to be sure: Brent Sass, Aliy Zirkle, Ryne Olson and Matt Failer--who had snagged Deedee Jonrowe for a handler!! I mean how fantastic is that?! I am happy for Nic. He will be contending with Pete and with Joar Liefseth Ulsom in the Iditarod 2020 come March. Not to denigrate Aliy, Jessie Royer and Paige Drobney who were all top-ten finishers last year and any one could be a winner.

Let me take a little detour here and talk about Nic. When I started this blog in 2014 after my first trip to Alaska where I met several amazing people and many more amazing dogs, I chose "Alamogordo to Alaska" for the title. Right then I had no way to guess that another person could have used that as well, a guy who was going to bust into the upper levels of the sled dog racing world very soon. That guy was Nic Petit.

He arrived in Alamogordo from France with his mother and lived with grand parents when he was in middle school  and into high school while living there for several years. While that may not figure very much in his eventual move to Alaska and advancement into the sled dog business, it remains a fact and one the local newspaper there covered the last couple of years. So in that we have a very strange and small kinship--we are both Alamogordo 'refugees'. He might say it is a good place to be from too!

Nic and Lolly

As I said on my Facebook page, Nic is kind of an underdog. He is, along with Aliy, in that "always a bridesmaid" category of second place finishes and rotten luck events that just won't go away. I know many say he brings most of the bad crap on himself but I don't really buy that. I met him my second trip to Alaska in 2016. He was at the annual meeting and first sign up day at Iditarod Headquarters with  a dog who was then his favorite leader. She was completely loose and free but seemed to be Velcroed to his side if not in his lap! I think he called her Lolly or Libby, two well known names in the racing world and she clearly loved him as he did her. He seemed very unassuming and a rather gentle person, at least what I saw. So he is an underdog and after the women, I will root for  him this year in the I'rod.If Aliy cannot win and Jessie or Paige do not, then I hope he does!

Aliy and Deedee--like jeff and mutt!

An odd tidbit on the two female mushers in the CB this time. Ryne was an apprentice and handler at SPK for a season or two before she started her own kennel and now is doing quite well. I know Aliy and Allen thought a lot of her. The two women have been friendly competitors in several races now that Ryne is doing her own thing. One of Ryne's dogs was the sire of Junior's litter last year. Junior, now that Quito is gone and her own mother Olive is retired, is one of the top dogs at SPK so you know a slouch dog would not be picked to produce her first litter of pups! It will be interesting to see how those pupsters do.  This year Aliy had three newbies on her team--Razz, who was an adoptee from another kennel and Sanka and Perky from the Coffee Litter. Razz and Perky were left at the last checkpoint but did very well up to then. Both were getting sore and Aliy will not push dogs at that point. She wants them to always feel it is fun and running while hurting is not fun.

At any rate, CB300 is just about in the history books. It was a cold and hard race. nearly half the starters scratched out at some point. Of course the stock answer is 'in the interest of the dogs,' and for the most part that is truth but i do know some mushers this time felt it was not worth the stress to the team and even maybe to them when the purse is small and bigger events are coming. Why risk an injury or a frostbite incident to a dog that might be critical to your success in the YQ or the Iditarod? Or even the Kusko--which was delayed due to weather conditions and will run this coming weekend.
The organizers of that race are really working to build it up with a very appealing purse and a lot of publicity. Several mushers opted out of the CB300 after the reschedule which left two hard mid- distance races back to back with just short days to make a long trip between them. I know Paige Drobney was one and there were several more.