Musher Sam Perrino of Fort St. James may be passing out a few extra treats to his sled dogs this week after coming out a big winner at the Cariboo Challenge Jack Gawthorn Memorial Sled Dog Race at 108 Mile, Jan. 8-9.
His teams took first place in the spectacular 10-dog open race and in the six-dog open race.
Ken Bernard, from Hinton, Alta. won the four-dog open and the ski jouring competition.
Dave Johnston of Tagish, Yukon was a triple threat, placing second in the four-, six- and 10-dog open races.
In the purebred division, Hans Appleman from Westrose, Alta. was first in the six-dog and second in the four-dog. He was also second in ski jouring.
Rob Bryce of Prince George won the four-dog purebred event and Mona Penner of Quesnel was second in the six-dog purebred race.
The top finishers in the three race categories shared a $10,000 prize purse.
This was the 19th running of the Cariboo Challenge, which has come under different names in the past. Snow fell for much of the two-day event and temperatures hovered around -11 C.
Len Doucette, president of the hosting Cariboo Challenge Sled Dog Society, says they couldn’t have asked for better conditions.
“It was incredible. The dogs loved the cool temperatures.”
He adds the highlight of the weekend was the 10-dog race, which followed a 10-kilometre course around 108 and Sepa lakes and the 108 Golf Course.
“This was the first time we’ve run a 10-dog race and it was very fast. The crowd loved it.”
Spectators, who numbered close to 100 on Saturday and about 60 on Sunday, had good vantage points at the 108 Historic Site start and finish area and at the 108 Resort.
Dogs didn’t have to be fast to be winners in the fun weight pull event. There, the challenge was to pull a dog sled stacked with a weight of 113 kilograms (250 pounds) for a distance of 30.5 metres (100 feet).
A dog named Winter was the winner in the large dog category and an Alaskan Malamute named Red won the medium dog event. Eight Ball, a basset cross was winner in the small dog weight pull, and according to Doucette, the weight pull event was a real crowd-pleaser.
Financially, the sled dog races did good enough to raise an adequate amount of seed money for next year’s event.
A dinner and auction brought in $2,200 and totals for the silent auction were still being tabulated at press time.
