Iditarod just released a statment informing fans that rookie Mike Parker scratched in Ruby today "in the best interest of his team."
Parker had fans worried for much of the last couple of days when it was realized the team seemed to be having a hard time moving forward. Watching the gps it was obvious there was something going wrong as the team would move slowly for a short time before resting for several hours at a time. The team finally made it into the checkpoint of Ruby Friday and many speculated that Parker's run may be coming to an end.
Parker was running a team out of Jim Lanier's Northern Whites kennel. He carried with him the ashes of three dogs killed last season on a training run when a Polaris employee struck his team on the Denali highway. Parker was hoping to spread their ashes on the trail "where they belonged" and never got to be while alive. The driver took a plea deal earlier this month that was dropped down to a citation.
The press release by the Iditarod stated that Parker had 11 dogs in harness at the time of his scratch.
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