ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A veteran long-distance musher has won the 2020 Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race.
Brent Sass on Tuesday afternoon crossed the finish line in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, to win the 1,000-mile (1,60-9-kilometer) race, the Anchorage Daily News reported.
Sass, 40, was also won in 2015 and 2019.
“This was a slog, there’s no doubt,” he said at the finish line. “… I’ve run 13 Yukon Quests and broke trail 10 times more (in this one) than in any of the other races put together.”
Michelle Phillips of Tagish Lake, Yukon, finished second four hours after Sass.
Sass got down on the ground and rolled in the snow with one of his wheel dogs before standing up and working his way down the line, petting each dog. He fed them all steak chunks, starting with leaders Morello and Woody.
Woody had never been a leader before, Sass said. Strong wind blew away the trail in many places and Sass experimented with different combinations of dogs in lead. He often hopped off the sled to lighten the dpgs’ load.
“I had to make sure that I did a lot of the work to help the dogs,” Sass said.