Good news in the sprint mushing circles

  The Anchorage Daily news reports on How the fur Rondy sprint races are bursting with prize money from businesses while the iditorod  has lost some money.  This means that for the first time in many many yrs. the sprint races are pursed high. The long distance race such as the iditorod usually sucks all the money up. I know here in the Yukon the businesses  money goes to the Yukon Quest. Why not it is an international race with lots of exposure for a sponsor. There doesn't seem to be much left for any other style of racing.  It is easy to understand as the Quest  races need a tremendous amount of revenue. 

   The Yukon doesn't have a sprint race to speak of. I mean as far as a open championship. It has happened but dies. I have been involved in the Rendezvous dog races starting again. The trouble is the interest, funding and people to put on a race of that magnitude doesn't exist with such a small population. Maybe a sprint race in the Yukon may be worth while sometime in the future.  

   Today we are getting some snow and the trail was groomed it is becoming very flat now. This week involves picking through the dogs. Putting the fastest for Six miles together and putting the fastest over four miles together. Then Ben and Rachel will put some faster runs on them to prepare for the races in the new year. It is coming soon. We start thinking of our first races sometime in July. It is crazy how much you can think about training dogs when you enjoy it so much. The dogs are looking good. runs have reached over 20 mph. The average is down. This is what is important is the average. You have to train the dogs to maintain a high average. This is what we work on now. Earlier would have been better. The trail just hasn't been great for more speed than what we have been training at now. The hope is to push the average up to eighteen to nineteen mph. Ben and Rachel will then see who cannot make that speed over a particular racing distance. 

  Try and find the link for the information on the fur Rondy from sled dog central. I tried to post the link but doesn't seem to work. It is a good article making me feel that there may be a small revival for sprint mushing in Alaska.  GREAT NEWS