2024 Knik 200 Roster

After a month of smaller races and several sad stories of dog teams tangling with snow machines, the race season is in full swing for 2024's first weekend. As always, the new year kicks off with the beloved Knik 200. Put on by the Knik Trail Blazers, the Knik 200 saw its roster fill up very quickly. The wait list, too, had several teams waiting and hoping for someone to drop out to be able to fill the spot. The race boasts a full roster for Saturday.

While the Lower 48 is still waiting for winter like temperatures and any sort of real snow, Alaska - especially South Central Alaska - has seen an abundance. The week between Christmas and New Year saw below zero temps before warming up to ring in the New Year. This winter has already thrown a little bit of everything at the teams.

Speaking of teams, you're probably just here for the roster list with links to the musher's websites and socials. As has been the norm for the last several years on the blog, we've got you covered. The addition of kennel names (when known) are back as well as that was a popular new feature last year.

As always, this roster will look slightly different come race day once Musher Bibs are drawn the night before. For now the list is in order of how the race shared it earlier this week. If anything needs changing, shoot me a message and we'll get it fixed!

BIB NUMBER 1 BELONGS TO JOE MAY.

Bib	Musher	Kennel	Link	Link	Link
2	Josh McNeal	Crooked Creek Kennel	Website	Facebook	Instagram
3	Ashley Dove	Crooked Creek Kennel	Website	Facebook	Instagram
4	Ed Hopkins	Tagish Lake	Website	Facebook	Instagram
5	Ryan Redington	Redington Mushing	Website	Facebook
6	Mary Boniface	Tailwind Kennel	Website	Facebook	Instagram
7	Ibi Wemark	Turning Heads Kennel	Website	Facebook	Instagram
8	Wade Marrs	Stump Jumpin Kennel	Website	Facebook	Instagram
9	Adam Lindenmuth	Sojourn Expeditions	Website	Facebook	Instagram
10	Brianna Blomgren	Team Bailey		Facebook
11	Travis Beals	Turning Heads Kennel	Website	Facebook	Instagram
12	Dane Baker	Alaskan Husky Adventures	Website	Facebook	Instagram
13	Dave Turner	Racing Chaos		Facebook	Instagram
14	Anna Hennessy	Shameless Huskies	Website	Facebook	Instagram
15	Sarah Giles	Nic Petit Racing	Website	Facebook	Instagram
16	Bridgett Watkins	Kennel on a Hill	Website	Facebook	Instagram
17	Juliah DeLoach	Oil Well Kennel		Facebook
18	Travis Vanderhoof	Dream Team Kennels		Facebook	Instagram
19	Amanda Otto	Husky Homestead	Website	Facebook	Instagram
20	Jessi Downey	Aimaagvik Kennel		Facebook	Instagram
21	Dakota Schlosser	Sled Dog Systems	Website	Facebook	Instagram
22	Anna Berington	Seeing Double Racing	Website	Facebook	Instagram
23	Sadie Lindquist	Seavey's Ididaride	Website	Facebook	Instagram
24	Brent Sass	Wild & Free Racing	Website	Facebook	Instagram
25	Ashley Franklin	Orange Blossom Kennel		Facebook	Instagram
26	Eddie Burke Jr.	Off the Rails Racing	Website	Facebook	Instagram
27	Lara Kittelson	Seavey's Ididaride	Website	Facebook	Instagram
28	Josiah Liebe	Dallas Seavey Racing	Website	Facebook	Instagram
29	Isaac Teaford	Dallas Seavey Racing	Website	Facebook	Instagram
30	Michelle Phillips	Tagish Lake	Website	Facebook	Instagram
31	Bailey Cross Vitello	Team Bailey	Website	Facebook	Instagram
32	Joshua Robbins	Outreach 22	Website	Facebook	Instagram
33	Emily Robinson	Robinson Racing Kennel	Website	Facebook	Instagram
34	Nic Petit	Nic Petit Racing	Website	Facebook	Instagram
35	Hunter Keefe	Redington Mush Alaska	Website	Facebook	Instagram
36	Gabe Dunham	Evermore Adventures	Website	Facebook	Instagram
37	Isaac Redington	Redington Racing		Facebook
38	Matt Randall	Rock On Racing	Website	Facebook	Instagram
39	Matthew Failor	17th Dog/Alaskan Husky Adventures	Website	Facebook	Instagram
40	Robert Redington	Alaska X		Facebook	Instagram

*Roster updated January 5, 2024.

Who are you excited to see on this list? Have a favorite you're cheering for? Who do you expect to take the top prize? Comment with your thoughts below.

And, as always, you can Buy me a slice of pizza to help keep the blog up and running. It's always appreciated but never expected.  

Kale Casey live at Knik 100

 

Dallas Seavey: "Please do not drink and drive this weekend"

Note: This story has details of massive injuries to dogs, dog death, and human trauma. 

Dallas Seavey at the restart of Iditarod 51. Seavey
released a statement today about a fatal incident
involving one of his dog teams and a snow machine
allegedly driven by a drunk driver on Saturday.

A trooper report spotted on Sunday morning reported a snowmachine accident involving a sled dog team outside of Cantwell, Alaska around 8:30pm on November 18. The dispatch gave little detail as to the event or the condition of those involved. All that was known was that no charges had been filed and the investigation was ongoing. Many within the mushing community and fandom alike wondered who it could be, and those in the know remained silent waiting for an official statement.

Wednesday morning, Dallas Seavey made a statement via his social media page indicating that a team from his kennel was the one involved. Handler Josiah and a team of nine Dallas Seavey Racing Kennel dogs were hit head on by a snow machine driven by someone who appeared heavily intoxicated. One dog died instantly, another succumbed to injuries an hour or so later. Three remain in critical condition. Seavey reported that four of the dogs as well as the musher, handler Josiah, had minor injuries.

"Josiah’s team was hit by a snowmachine traveling ~65mph in the opposite direction," Seavey wrote. "Of the nine dogs in the team one was killed instantly, one had several broken legs and died within an hour, three had compound fractures or limbs nearly amputated by the impact, and the remaining four had minor injuries (by comparison)."

Seavey detailed the injuries of the three dogs in critical condition. Two have already had surgery, one to amputate a leg, the other dog to hopefully save a leg. The third dog is so critical due to fluid on the lungs that they cannot operate on this time, but the dog needs to have its leg amputated as well. Seavey believes all three dogs will never run in harness again - even if the one's leg can be saved. 

Dallas Seavey closed his statement with a plea ahead of a holiday many over imbibe during - "Please do not drink and drive this weekend," he wrote. "And remember, there are other users on the trails."

This could have had an even more tragic story as not just dogs but humans were hit by a snow machine going 65-70 miles per hour. Josiah was thrown from the dogsled but still managed to tend to dogs as they bled. Had it not been for the fact that he was traveling with two other experienced dog mushers (Dallas ahead of him by at least half an hour, Isaac behind him) we may have had a very different outcome for most of the dog team. 

This evening Dallas Seavey was interviewed by Anchorage Television station and NBC affiliate, KTUU's Mike Ross. While the broadcasts shared snippets from that interview, Ross shared the interview in its entirety on his Facebook page after the broadcasts. WARNING: Dallas goes into great detail of the incident as he knows it, as well as the sometimes graphic detail of the carnage he found when he came to Josiah's aid. He mentions the help of fellow musher Paige Drobny (Squid Acres) to get him to the crash site. It's about 20 minutes long and it is a HEAVY listen. 

Dryland in September

I know, it's November, but I never shared my favorite shots from the morning I spent at the Chugiak Dog Musher Association's Dryland races at the end of September. I was in town for Scott Hamilton's Sk8 to Elimin8 Cancer (and yes this fangirl cried because Scott Hamilton was RIGHT THERE) and then my wonderful friend Meredith Mapes twisted my arm to have me come snap some pics of her and her canine friends doing what they love.

I wasn't able to stay for the full day, but I did get some shots that I'm pretty happy with. Enjoy.

Dallas Seavey the first winner of Iditarod Lotto

Dallas Seavey celebrates a win during his "race"
at the now closed Wildride Sled Dog Rodeo.
Anchorage, Alaska. August 2010.

The Iditarod announced its first weekly winner of the newly created Iditarod Lotto Wednesday and Iditarod Nation got a good chuckle out of who won. 

The Iditarod announced the Iditarod Lotto on November 3, 2023 as their newest fundraiser to support not only the Last Great Race but also the Museum of Alaska Transportation and Industry. Tickets can be purchased for $2 each, with special discounts if you buy large quantities (for example, 75 tickets only cost $50). There are weekly winners through March 13 when a jackpot (they call it progressive pot) winner will be announced.

"The proceeds will be essential to not only ensuring the sustainability of the Iditarod, our culture and our mushers but also the Museum of Alaska Transportation and Industry," Rob Urbach, Iditarod CEO, stated in the press release. 

The payout is a simple 25-25-50 model. Weekly winners get 25% of the weekly monies received. 25% goes into the pot to be accumulated for the jackpot on March 13, 2024. 50% is split evenly between the Iditarod and the Museum as well as any costs associated with running the lotto. A single ticket number will be randomly selected by a certified, lab tested Random Number Generator from all tickets sold during the week. All tickets will also be entered for the progressive pot (jackpot) at the end of the season.

This past Wednesday was the first winner announcement and it came with great amusement to many. Dallas Seavey - the second musher to ever win 5 Iditarod championships - won $2,067 in the weekly drawing. The announcement gained automatic attention on Facebook with many fans chiming in with their thoughts on the lucky winner. "How does he do that?" wrote the champion's oldest brother. "Damn the booties and the cash !" wrote fellow musher and 2024 Iditarod Rookie Lauro Ekland who referenced Dallas' luck at the Iditarod Picnic where Seavey won the musher door prize of 500 dog booties. (Don't worry, I got my little dig in, too.) 

This is not the first time the Iditarod has used a lottery to fund the race. In the early years they sold lottery tickets for a dollar. There's a bit of nostalgia in Iditarod returning to its roots in starting up a new (and perfectly legal this time) lottery.

The lotto is not just for Alaska residents. Fans throughout the US can also purchase tickets. Alaskans must use the online platform to purchase tickets, while outside of the US fans can call 1-800-545-6874.

"We are thrilled to be able to offer a Lotto," Rob Urbach said, "with the excitement of  weekly winners and what we hope will be a large grand prize payout."

The Lotto announcement was joined days later by two other fundraisers, a "Tagalong" program where fans can pay a flat fee of $250 to have a tag with their dog's name ride in the sled of their chosen musher. Just five tags for each sled will be sold, and several mushers have already sold out. The third fundraising announcement helps the mushers as well as the race as the Iditarod Store now has an affiliate program for mushers. You can use a musher's code at checkout when you buy online at the Iditarod Store and 10% of the sale will go to the musher. Mushers are current Iditarod roster mushers only and their code is a combination of their first initial plus their last name ALL IN CAPS (example: ABERINGING). The store is also now back in the hands of the race directly, no longer working with a third party.

The announcements of all three fundraising ideas were warmly received by the Iditarod Nation and mushers alike. One can only think that this will revitalize a stagnant fanbase's enthusiasm in financially supporting the race above their usual ITC Memberships or Insider subscriptions.

Have you played the Iditarod Lotto or do you plan to? Comment below on your thoughts about this new fundraiser or any of the other newly released programs!

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Kuskokwim 300 Race Board announces purse increases

The Kuskokwim 300 Race Board which governs not only the famed K300 but also the Delta Championship Series of races released a statement today with news that they would be increasing the purses of all of their races "substantially." The press release this afternoon broke down the increases for each of the three "big" races as well as giving numbers "for the rest" of the races. They weren't joking, the increases are substantial.

The Kuskokwim 300 sees a $25,000 increase in purse. The K300 pays out to the top 25 (out of 30) teams. The winner of the 2024 Kusko is guaranteed $28,500 - $3,500 more than last year. The other 24 "in the money" placements will also see pay increases. The Bogus Creek 150 purse saw a $15,000 increase, topping out now at $75,000 with the champion winning $12,000. The Akiak Dash which takes place the day after the start of the Kusko 300 saw a $10,000 increase bringing the total purse to $40,000 with the champ getting $5,500. All other races have purses of $25,000. You can see the breakdown of purses via a PDF provided on the race website.

The Kusko is not the only racing organization to boost the purse payouts. The Iditarod announced ahead of opening their 2024 registration that they had increased the purse by $50,000. The increase was the first for the Last Great Race in six years, and credited the fundraising efforts of the Iditarod Board of Directors.

For the K300 races, a lot of the fundraising comes from "rippies"/pull-tabs, but also come from very generous sponsors in the Kusko-Delta region. This is the first time in five years that the Kusko board has raised purses. 

The Kuskokwim 300 race has a rull roster of 30 teams set to race on January 26, 2024. 

As always, if you like what you see and want to support my addiction (I mean HOBBY) of following these races and stalking (I mean cheering on) the mushers, you can buy me a slice of pizza (that really goes to paying for my internet/web expenses).