Husky News

After Saturday’s ceremonial start, the real race began at 2 p.m. Sunday in Willow when the 83 teams entered in this year’s race headed down the 1,100-mile trail to Nome.

Oh, the optimism that abounds before the start of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

Maybe it was the bright sunshine that bathed Fourth Avenue in downtown Anchorage, maybe it was the warm weather or maybe it was just the festivities surrounding the ceremonial start, but optimism abounded on Saturday among the mushers entered in the 2006 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

“I’ve got a great team, the weather is great, my crew is great and I like my chances,” three-time Iditarod and 1989 Yukon Quest champion Jeff King of Denali Park said prior to Saturday’s ceremonial start in downtown Anchorage. “It’s time to bring this baby back to the Interior.

“I’ve won the Kusko, I’ve won the 440 and I’ve won the Knik 200 with this team,” King added. “There’s no reason to believe that they’re not ready for this.”

After Saturday’s ceremonial start, the real race began at 2 p.m. Sunday in Willow when the 83 teams entered in this year’s race headed down the 1,100-mile trail to Nome.

Two-time Yukon Quest champion Lance Mackey is the only musher in this year’s race who has the chance to say that he could win the Quest and the Iditarod in the same year.

“I’m not sure I’ve recovered (from the Quest), but I’m ready to roll and I’m looking forward to this one,” he said.

When asked if he could become the first person to win both races in the same year, Mackey responded, “I believe I have as good as chance as any to do that.”

Among those who have been in the position in the past are the likes of two-time Quest champion Charlie Boulding and three-time Quest champion Hans Gatt.

“I just have to keep my head together and stay focused,” Mackey said. “And there’s some luck involved like not having your dogs get some kind of illness that’s going around or not taking any wrong turns. If I can make a good clean run like I did in the Quest, I believe I’ll be in position to make it happen.”

Healy’s Ramy Brooks, who won the 1998 Yukon Quest, is another musher who believes that they could be the first one to cross under the burled arch on Front Street in Nome about nine days from now.

“I’m excited about the team that we’ve put together this year,” Brooks said. “I’ve got a nice team and if we execute the plan the way we’ve put it together then we just might get to Nome without anybody in front of us.”

Two Rivers musher Aliy Zirkle, the only woman to ever win the Yukon Quest, also has high aspirations for the 34th running of the Iditarod.

“I like them a lot,” Zirkle said of the team she has assembled to leave the starting line in Willow this afternoon. “I’ve got eight that made it all the way to Nome last year, the group includes 11 Iditarod veterans and I still have one Quest veteran in my team. I don’t have a lot of all-stars, but I have a nice core to work with. I’d like to be in the top for sure and you never know what might happen if you’re in that position. The field is so wide open that there are probably 10 or 15 who could win it and I think I’m in that group.”

Ken Anderson said he’d like to get back into the top 10 after finishing 17th the past two years. He was seventh in 2003, the year the race started in Fairbanks.

“I’ve got 11 of 12 finishers from last so I’d like to be in the top 10 again this year,” Anderson said. “Everything has gone great this winter. The dogs spirits are up and they’ve good weight so I think everything is in place to make a good run.”

Jessie Royer, who spent most of the winter training in Montana where the weather was warmer wasn’t about to make any predictions on how her team might do this winter.

“It’s been so warm on the Iditarod the past couple of years, I think it might help that they trained in a little warmer climate,” Royer said. “I’m missing a few key dogs but it always seems to work itself out once you get on the trail.”

Judy Currier of Fairbanks and Clint Warnke of Two Rivers would like nothing better than to earn a top 20 finish. “Things are looking really good with 15 veterans and 12 Iditarod finishers in this year’s team,” a confident Currier said. “I ran a happy team last year and almost all of them are back this year. Ideally, I’d like to be in the top 20.

“We’ll be running on a schedule this year and the key thing is to not put too much stress on the dogs early in the race. I’ve got a fast team, but I have to be able to manage that speed. Another key for me is getting out of the checkpoints. I have a tendency to rest in the checkpoints too long.”

Warnke, who finished 26th the last time he ran the Iditarod in 2003, is running a team of dogs from Sonny Lindner’s kennel.

“I’ve got a younger team, but it’s solid,” Warnke said. “If I were to finish in the top 20, I would be happier than any other musher in the race, even the winner.”

Five-time Iditarod champion Rick Swenson wasn’t in a talkative mood on Saturday, but he did say he had a team capable of winning the race.

“My goal is always to win,” Swenson said. “I’ve got to get to the starting line in one piece first, but I think I’ve got the team that can do it.”

In addition to hooking up a team for Warnke, Lindner will be running a young team of his own this year.

“I’ve got a team of mostly two-year-olds so they’ll need a lot of rest in the first half of the race,” Lindner said. “I don’t have any Iditarod finishers in this group, so we’ll just have to wait and see what they look like at the midway point and then see where we go from there.”

Healy’s Dave Sawatzky is another Interior musher who will be running a young team.

“It’s a good bunch, but they are all 3-year-olds who haven’t really raced before,” Sawatzky said. “We’ll hook ‘em up on Sunday and head out on the trail and see how they will do.”

Other mushers from the Interior entered in this year’s race are Jessica Hendricks of Two Rivers, Jacques Philip of Nenana, Aaron Burmeister of Nenana, Sandy McKee of Fairbanks and Mike Jayne of Fairbanks.

Source: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner