Scratches mark 1st week of Iditarod, while veteran Holmes takes home 2 awards

The first week of the Iditarod has been marked with several mushers scratching from the race, while veteran musher Jessie Holmes takes home several awards.

Jessie Holmes (bib #15) won the Alaska Air Transit Spirit of Iditarod Award, as the first musher to reach the Grayling 2 checkpoint, the second pass through Grayling on March 9.

First presented in 2019 and given to the first musher to reach the McGrath checkpoint, this year it goes to the first musher to reach the Grayling 2 checkpoint for due to the route change. Holmes received special gifts of Beaver fur musher’s mitts with beadwork on moose hide, which are handmade by Loretta Maillelle who was raised in Grayling. Loretta’s elder father, Joseph Maillelle, Sr. of Grayling presented the handmade mitts as well as a beaver fur hat made by Rosalie Egrass of Magrath on behalf of Alaska Air Transit.

“It is an honor to have Joseph Maillelle Sr. greeting the first musher, as he shares the tradition of the Iditarod dating back to when he checked in the very first team into Grayling over 50 years ago during the first Iditarod!” says Josie Owen, owner of Alaska Air Transit.

Grayling is also the halfway point for the race this year, and as Homes was the first musher into Grayling, he was also awarded the GCI Dorothy G. Page Halfway Award.

This award is given in honor of the late “Mother of the Iditarod” and is presented at the Iditarod checkpoint when following the Southern route in odd years, and the Cripple checkpoint when following the Northern route in even years. This year, given the route change, the halfway point is the Grayling 1 checkpoint.

By reaching this checkpoint first, Holmes received a trophy and his choice of $3,000 in gold nuggets, symbolic of the history of this interior area of the Iditarod Mining District or a brand-new smartphone with a year of free service from GCI. A beautiful perpetual trophy made of Alaskan birch and marble which features a photograph of the late Dorothy G. Page remains year-round at Iditarod headquarters.

This award will be re-presented to Holmes at the finishers banquet in Nome.Officials with the Iditarod Trail Committee (ITC) announced that rookie Iditarod musher, Charmayne Morrison (bib #30), scratched at the Tanana checkpoint on March 6 in the best interest of her team. Morrison had 14 dogs in harness when she arrived in Tanana, all in good health.

Canadian rookie Connor McMahon decided to scratch in Galena at race officials citing that it was “in the best interest of his team.”

Fairbanks veteran musher Deke Naaktgeborn ended his race Sunday in Nulato.

Rookie Iditarod musher, Brenda Mackey (bib #9), of Fairbanks, Alaska, scratched on March 5 at 4:35 p.m. at the Tanana checkpoint in the best interest of her team. The original press release stated that Mackey had 14 dogs in harness when she arrived in Tanana, all in good health.

However, as more information came in from the checkpoint, it is now understood that Mackey had 13 dogs in harness and one dog, Jett, resting in her sled due to health concerns that emerged approximately three hours after departing Tanana.

Upon recognizing the issue, Mackey did make an attempt to activate her SOS button on her tracker, but unfortunately did not activate it correctly. She then made the decision to return to the checkpoint where Jett was promptly examined by Trail Veterinarians and flown to Anchorage.

“We are happy to report that Jett is seemingly in good condition and appears to be healthy and in high spirits,” ITC said in a statement, issuing an apology for any miscommunication regarding the confusion.

Veteran Iditarod musher, Jeff Deeter (bib #33), of Fairbanks, Alaska, scratched at the Galena checkpoint on March 7, citing concerns for the physical health of his team. Deeter had 11 dogs in harness when he arrived in Galena.

Additionally, musher, Mike Parker (bib #11), of Eagle River, Alaska, also scratched at the Ruby checkpoint in the best interest of his team. Parker had 11 dogs in harness when he arrived in Ruby. He was making his rookie run of the Iditarod.

“Both of these mushers have been great competitors in this race and we hope to see them on the Iditarod Trail again in the future,” ITC officials said in a statement.

Veteran Iditarod musher, Gabe Dunham (bib #20), of Willow, Alaska, scratched on March 9 at the Eagle Island checkpoint in the best interest of her team. Dunham had 14 dogs when she arrived in Eagle Island.

Iditarod race officials reported Sunday that a two-year-old dog from rookie Isaac Teaford’s team collapsed about 200 feet from reaching the Nulato checkpoint and was pronounced dead after about 20 minutes of being given CPR.

Teaford, running his rookie race, was in 27th on Sunday when his team reached Nulato shortly after 9:45 a.m., when officials say the dog, named Bog, collapsed.

In a statement, race officials said Iditarod checkers and one race veterinarian went to help the dog and give it CPR before it was pronounced dead.

Officials said a “gross necropsy” has been performed by a board-certified pathologist, but was unable to determine a cause of death. Further testing will be done to figure out how the dog died.

Teaford ultimately scratched from the race due to Rule 42, which states that any musher must voluntarily retire from the race, or be forced to withdraw by officials, except for rare circumstances in which a dog’s death happened through no fault of the musher.

Later in the day, it was announced that a second dog, a four-year-old named George from racer Hunter Keefe’s team, had also died.

These were the latest deaths in the race after rookie Iditarod musher, Daniel Klein, of Eagle, Wisconsin scratched Friday, March 7 at 2:10 p.m. at the Galena checkpoint pursuant to Rule 42.

“At approximately 12:00 p.m. today, Ventana, a four-year-old female from the race team of Daniel Klein (bib #19), collapsed on the trail approximately 8 miles outside of the Galena checkpoint. Attempts to revive Ventana were unsuccessful,” the ITC said in a statement. Ventana has been flown to Anchorage where will be conducted by a board-certified pathologist to try and determine the cause of death.