We are in the new era of Iditarod mushing. The roster has slowly grown in the last couple of years and while still not the numbers from the twenty-aughts and twenty-teens we no longer wonder if there will be much of a roster at all. With nearly forty teams set to head towards Nome in just under two weeks from now, a strong group of "new" potential champions are poised to take their team to the next level.
Sure, their names have been in the "waiting in the wings" status. The "potential to win" status. The "future champion" status. But there were still those teams that just had that much more experience to get the job done again and again. This year's roster is full of those teams that have been "waiting in the wings". They've won the other races. They've been in the top ten for years. They all have the experience and the ability to run a race that is a winning race.
But there are a lot of them. This roster is stacked with talented dogs and mushers. Of the four returning champions, three will be gunning for that top position. 2020 Champ Thomas Waerner is the only musher not focused on winning - his job this year will be to guide the inaugural "expedition class" musher to the finish line. Our three remaining return champs are the exciting trio of Holmes, Kaiser, and Redington.
So as you prepare to choose your Fantasy Mushing Iditarod 54 team, let's take a look at the highest potential teams in this year's race (that will probably be the higher priced teams in FM.)
Jessie Holmes - The reining Iditarod Champion. The Team Can't Stop musher was all smiles and positive energy at race sign-ups this past June. Holmes entered the Iditarod in his rookie year with the full intent of immediately being competitive. And, he was. Winning Rookie of the Year, Holmes went on to continually contend for a top placement. And, then, in 2025 it happened. Holmes took a very similar approach this season as last. He was very choosey of which races his team would enter, deciding on the Copper Basin and... that's it until after Iditarod. It worked last year, let's see how it plays out this year.
Jessie Royer - One of the top female mushers for well over two decades now, Royer is no stranger to the top ten of Iditarod. Unfortunately for Royer her schedule was a little different this season as her stomping grounds in the Lower 48 saw a winter similar to what Alaska faced in 2025. Several mid-distance races were canceled, including Montana's Race to the Sky a race that Team J dominates. This should not in any way make this year's Iditarod more challenging. Royer spends a lot of time in the winter in Alaska and in any situation extremely adaptable. She's a sure bet to get you those fantasy points.
Josi Shelley - This may be a risky choice for top ten, but the 2024 Rookie of the Year just had a hell of a race on the Yukon Quest Alaska 750. She didn't just win that race, she dominated having a Libby Riddles like run where she lead by hours staying ahead of the bulk of the massive winter storm that hit during the race. She could absolutely make waves in the top ten this year if she plays her cards right and her team is bounced back from their historic win last week. We've seen other teams run both races back to back (and, yeah, the Quest is shorter now) and it's only seen one team win both in the same year. Could Josi repeat that feat?
Matt Hall - Is Matt going to be the next musher to ride the "always the bridesmaid, never the bride" roller coaster? We've seen him come in second now a couple of times. In the last two years he's come in second. Last year he changed up his training program by doing more human training year round as well as focusing on just running Iditarod and not running many if any races in the months before. He said he was taking a page out of Dallas Seavey's book. Marathons for Hall in the summer, training dogs in the winter with the prize a long adventure on the Iditarod trail. He's nearly there, will it happen for him in 2026? That's what we're all watching.
Michelle Phillips - She was fourth last year. Her first in the top ten. She's consistently in the top twenty when she runs the race. She just won the Two Rivers 200 race, another dominate win by one of the mushers on this list. She's won the Canadian Quest several times in their different long lengths. She'd no doubt have been in this year's race had they been able to put one on. Last year's race was the longest and for many the hardest in modern Iditarod history and Michelle managed her best finish - by far. She's one of the toughest out there and it will be exciting to see how she slingshots off last year's result.
Mille Porsild - She's been crowned by many to be "the next". We've had several "the next" since Susan Butcher hung it up in the 90s. Porsild's friend and mentor DeeDee Jonrowe knows the pressure of being labeled "the next" better than anyone. Jonrowe raced against Butcher and after Susan's retirement was expected to take the legend's place as dominating the men on the trail. Jonrowe came close, but never took it all the way. Since Porsild's rookie year in 2020, the musher has yet to be out of the top 15, with only two years finding her team out of the top 10. She's as tough as they come, and as fast as they come, with experience to boot.
Paige Drobny - The Squids lit up the race scene this winter and are now pointed towards Nome. While Drobny's husband took the team out for most of the race season, Paige is set to take another shot at the top placement of the Last Great Race. While always a fan favorite and certainly a consistent top twenty team, Drobny and the Squids made a huge jump in 2024 running down many of the top teams in the final leg of the race to come in fifth place - without pushing her young team. Drobny improved on that placement last year coming in third. If she and her team - now in its prime racing experience age - manage to follow this pattern.... just sayin'.
Pete Kaiser - Talk about coming in right under the wire. Kaiser's name wasn't even on the roster until Monday. Like drop bag Monday. Like just under three weeks from the Ceremonial Start Monday. The 2019 Champion's team looked incredible on the Kusko. They always do, but there was something about this year's team that had lots of comments on just HOW good they looked. Strong, powerful, energetic. As Pete made his historic tenth Kusko win the media immediately asked if he was sure he wasn't going to run the Iditarod and he musher played coy. Hope dwindled as food drop deadline approached and then the announcement was made.
Riley Dyche - Speaking of the Kusko, Dyche once again came in second, gaining one minute on the champ from last year's race. Dyche said post race that in about 20 years he'll catch Kaiser. Hopefully it doesn't actually take that long, but Dyche is one of those spreadsheet mushers. Like many mushers of the newer generation, Dyche uses race archives to prepare his "thesis" for the master class of Iditarod. He studies race times, strategies, training habits. Everything. He and his wife have quietly built their kennel and their team to become one of the top kennels, choosing to lay low and out of the internet spotlight. He's truly the dark horse of mushing that way and time will tell how it works out for him, but don't be surprised to see him in the mix.
Travis Beals - Another solid bet for a top ten finish for Fantasy Mushing teams, Beals has come sixth the last two Iditarods. Two years ago he lead for a good portion of the race before realizing he punched the gas a little too soon on the Yukon (and he ended up with an eye injury that didn't help). Last year in the longest and some say toughest Iditarod in modern race history he once again ended up six after a strong race. Those added miles to the total may have played a part. With the race going back to a trail far more familiar with weather far more usual forecasted for the race, Travis should be right on track to stay in the mix and improve on his already impressive track record.
What?! Have we done it?! We've stuck to ten?!
Ha! If you've read this blog before you know it's not possible to start at ten. These days there are just too many teams with the potential to ruin this perfectly, professionally, punctuatedly list of ten. No, no. We have some honorable mentions with not just an outside chance of spoiling the whole thing, but a very real chance of doing so.
Honorable mentions like Rohn Buser who is returning to Iditarod after a life hiatus. He went out and did other things, met and married his wife who is very much equal kennel and business partner, he's a two time dad. Last year was supposed to be when Buser returned to Iditarod but his daughter had other plans and he withdrew so he could be dad to his newborn daughter. He's currently running the Su Dog 300 as a final training run. He's used most of the races this season to get the miles and exeperience focusing on a positive race for all. It's anyone's guess how much he pushes in this first Iditarod back.
Jeff Deeter this past summer had noted that he wasn't fully planning on a bid at the Iditarod this year always hedging with it would depend on how the team looked, but when sign ups came around his name found its way on the list. So he must have seen something in the team that suggested they were gonna go for it. Deeter ran a conservative Kusko, and had to scratch from the Yukon Quest Alaska as the trail disappeared during the storms needing to preserve the team for the big one.
Wade Marrs made the move back to Alaska after several years in the Upper Midwest of the US. Partially due to his spending his summers in Alaska managing a touring operation, but also just to get back to Iditarod - and that feeling of home. It should be expected for Marrs to remind people why he was so exciting to follow when he last ran Iditarod.
Ryan Redington won the whole thing just three years ago. He's seemingly in the last season or so taken a backseat in the mid-distance races, using them to build up a his team for Iditarod. Perhaps he's playing a mental game and he'll surprise everyone in the Iditarod. Maybe this will be more of a training run. We'll know by the time he reaches Nome. (Blogger note: Ryan let me know today that he's not playing a mental game and is always working to build a better team. He's all in with a strong team.)
Bailey Vitello was just supposed to run the Iditarod to check it off the musher bucketlist. Then he did it, and he got bitten by that bug. The one they all talk about. The one that they all say they're done in Nome and then at the last Saturday in June they show up and ask "what is wrong with us?" And Bailey's stayed, trained, raced, and is now one of the up and coming stars. In three races he's jumped from a twenty-seventh place rookie run finish to fifth last year.
The race kicks off with the Ceremonial Start in Anchorage, Alaska on March 7, 2026 at 10am with the restart in Willow, Alaska on March 8 at 2pm.
Who do you think should be on the list? Comment below with your thoughts.
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