Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race is rife with dynasties

WILLOW — For some people, dog mushing is a passion they found for themselves.

Maybe they were fascinated as children. Maybe they came to it in middle age. But for others — like the Mackey, Redington and Seavey families — dog mushing is an inherited trait. It’s something they were born to do.

“I’ve got blue eyes and I say ‘that’s the Husky in me,’” Jason Mackey said at the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race restart March 2 in Willow.

Mackey, of Wasilla, certainly has racing in his blood. His father, Dick Mackey, won the sixth Iditarod in 1978. Five years later, Jason’s brother Rick Mackey won it. From 2007 through 2010, Jason’s other brother, Lance Mackey, pulled of four straight Iditarod victories.

“I used to compare myself” to the Mackey mushing legacy, Jason said.

He said he finally stopped that when he realized nobody can compare to Lance, who also won four straight Yukon Quests. Jason said he can only do as well as he can with the dogs he’s trained. But if he’s truly stopped comparing himself, it’s not something that was easy to do. If he doesn’t draw those comparisons, the media will.

“I’ve been asked I don’t know how many times if I think I can win,” he said. “Absolutely I can win — with the right team.”

As of Monday, he was squarely in the middle of the pack of this year’s race.

While it was the Mackey clan in the limelight not too long ago, the racing dynasty on a lot of minds in recent years has been the Seaveys. The family set race history in 2012 and 2013. First, son Dallas became the youngest Iditarod winner in 2012. The next year, father Mitch became the oldest. The Seavey mushing tradition stretches back farther than that. Dan Seavey, Mitch’s dad, ran in the first Iditarod in 1973.

Both Dallas and Mitch are frontrunners this year, running just behind race leaders Jeff King and Aily Zirkle as of press time Monday afternoon. This year a third Seavey is in the race — Danny Seavey, 31.

“This will be the fifth Iditarod with three Seaveys,” Dallas said at the restart.

As Dallas packed his sled bag in Willow a week ago, yet another Seavey stopped by to talk — Conway Seavey, 17, this year’s Jr. Iditarod Champion.

Dallas joked that a win for his brother in that race was a good sign. The last time Conway won the Jr. Iditarod was in 2012, the year Dallas won Iditarod.

He said that running the race with his dad allows for some friendly competition, some jovial trash-talking and some good-natured ribbing in the checkpoints.

“Call it what you want, but my dad is my best friend,” Dallas said.

He said that when you grow up around dozens of dogs, taking care of them is not a choice. You take care of dogs as part of your daily chores.

“Whether you’re going to grow up and do that is your choice,” Dallas said.

Having made that decision himself, he said he thinks he got some competitive advantages from his upbringing.

“You learn it more intuitively and at a deeper level when you learn to watch dogs young,” he said. “

As recognized as the Seavey and Mackey names are in mushing, they don’t get more storied than the Redingtons.

Ray Redington Jr. is the only Redington in this year’s race, but his family famously founded the race. His grandfather, Joe Redington Sr. is known as “Father of the Iditarod” and recently had a high school named after him for his contribution to the sport and area.

Redington might be one of the only people who would describe being out in the frozen wilderness for eight sleepless days traveling 1,000-plus miles while caring for a team of dogs as “relaxing.”

He said there are advantages and disadvantages to being a part of a racing dynasty.

“I think the advantage of it is you’re supposed to know how a proper dog team performs,” he said.

But that can be a disadvantage, leading to frustration when your team isn’t performing. In his time in the sport — this will be his 14th race to Nome — he’s watched it evolve.

“I find myself going around every year and looking at ever truck just to see what’s new and what’s changed,” he said.

This year it was trailers — lots of mushers were trying out cabooses as a place to let a dog rest as the rest ran.

“And then we’ve got the Norwegians, who always bring good ideas,” Redington said.

Some of those ideas he incorporates into his strategy, some he doesn’t. He’s finished in the top 10 the last three times he ran and was somewhere in the top 20 for most of this year’s race. He said that he’s been eyeing that trophy for years.

“I’m been trying to get it,” he said. “It isn’t easy.”

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.