A terrible thing has happened to Lance Mackey, two-time Iditarod winner. In the course of the running of the All Alaska Sweepstakes a snow machine struck Lance’s sled, destroying it and seriously injuring a key dog on his team:
NOME — A man on a snowmachine ran into the dog team driven by Yukon Quest and Iditarod champion Lance Mackey in the All Alaska Sweepstakes, seriously injuring a key animal in Mackey’s kennel.
Mackey broke down in tears Saturday telling how a veteran race dog, Zorro, was injured as the animal rode in the sled’s basket.
The snowmachine driver has not been identified.
The 408-mile All Alaska Sweepstakes is a race from Nome to tiny Candle and back. The race was first held 100 years ago. The winner-take-all first prize is $100,000.
Mackey, a Fairbanks musher, has won the 1,100-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race between Anchorage and Nome and the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest between Fairbanks and Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, the last two years.
He was in third place in the Sweepstakes at around midnight Friday just 20 miles from the finish line when two snowmachines came up fast from behind.
“I was flashing them like mad with my headlamp,” he said. “I was shining my headlamp right in his face, but they kept on coming at me. I jumped aside, and by 30 feet further up the trail, there was a snowmachine sitting on the middle of my sled.”
The machine impaled the sled bag with its runners.
“Three or four dogs were sucked underneath and Zorro was trapped in the sled bag,” Mackey said.
Zorro is Mackey’s stud dog. If he’s been killed the consequences for Mackey’s kennel and his future in sled dog racing could be very serious.
The early reports are not good. Zorro’s hind legs are apparently paralyzed, there’s swelling on his spinal cord, and it’s unknown whether the damage is permanent or not.
Whatever the outcome it’s a tragedy for sled dog racing, Lance Mackey, and, of course, for Zorro. I don’t have any specific knowledge of what happen but I can only suspect that alcohol was involved. Drunken snowmobile operators are unsafe at any speed.
Update
There’s good news from the All Alaska Sweepstakes web site:
Just a few minutes ago we got a report on Zorro’s condition. He has been examined by a veterinary neurologist in Seattle and completed an MRI to fully evaluate his spine. The results suggest that despite significant trauma to Zorro’s chest and spine, he is expected to achieve a full recovery over time without surgical intervention.
This is really sad news. As you noted, drunken snowmachining is a really popular sport in rural Alaska. Let’s hope Zorro recovers.
The guy that hit Mackey’s team did come forward, however, Mackey was not planning on releasing his name. I thought that said an awful lot of good things about Mackey. According to the radio report this morning, alcohol was involved.
There seem to be a lot of snowmachine/dogteam collisions every year. Unfortunately the dog team always seems to lose.