Yukon Quest champ Allen Moore wins Vets' Choice Award
It was no surprise Yukon Quest champion Allen Moore won the Vets' Choice Award at Saturday's Finish and Awards Banquet.
He finished the race with all 14 dogs — a rare accomplishment for the winner of the race.
The Vets' Choice Award is decided by the race's veterinary team and given to the musher who "best demonstrates outstanding canine care while remaining competitive during the entire race."
The surprise came when he was given a special award patch.
Mushers receive patches at the end of the race as a souvenir, but usually they are embroidered, like a Canada flag patch on a backpack.
The Vets' Choice Award patch was hand-beaded by Anne Tayler, a member of the sewing group at the Kwanlin Dun Cultural Centre. It is the first year the group sewed patches for the finishers and special awards — a way to mark the quest's 35th year.
Tayler's husband, Frank Turner, ran the Yukon Quest 24 times and won the first ever Vets' Choice Award in 1985 and then again in 2001.
"It was a very, very important award for him, more important than placing," she said. "I know for other mushers like Allen it's the same thing."
Tayler said the design is based on a special moment Frank would share with this dogs.
"My strongest image of Frank on the trail is of him leaning over a dog that was curled up," she said. "They would be nose to nose and half the time the dog would be cleaning his beard, cleaning all the ice out, and there was such an intimacy in that."
200 to 300 hours of sewing
Tayler used beaver pelt for the ruff of the musher's parka, porcupine quills around the dog's eyes, a down feather for the dog's tail and 14 abalone shell discs — one for each dog on a team.
Tayler said she's done about 200 to 300 hours of sewing on the two patches since October, but the crunch was on over the past week to finish the Vets' Choice Award with about six hours of beading a day.
"This does mean more than winning," said a visibly emotional Moore as he accepted the patch Saturday night.
The award might have extra weight this year after dog sled races have come under scrutiny by animal activists and the subject of a documentary.
The Vets' Choice Award comes with a cash bonus of $1,000 US toward vet services, according to a release from the Yukon Quest.
Winner, winner, steak dinner
Not to be outdone, Moore's lead dogs, four-year-old Commando and five-year-old Dutch also took to the stage to receive the Golden Harness award.
It recognizes their "loyalty, endurance and perseverance" throughout the race.
The award included two custom harnesses, plus steaks prepared by the chefs at the High Country Inn.
Moore's wife and dog mushing legend in her own right, Aliy Zirkle, told the crowd about how Commando led the team for all 1,000 miles of his second Yukon Quest.
Sharing the position was Dutch, "kind of the dopey little boy," according to Zirkle.
"Allen said he decided to put Dutch up in lead because he showed incredible enthusiasm," she said.
"If you all saw any of the pictures of these guys coming in and out of checkpoints, Dutch was always the one in the air jumping and Commando was always the one looking at him like, 'Why are you doing that?'"
