Pete Kaiser
Pete Kaiser won his eighth Kuskokwim 300 Sled Dog Race on Sunday with a patient, efficient run that brought him to the Bethel finish line 41 minutes ahead of Willow’s Matthew Failor on Sunday morning.
With one more win, Kaiser can match Jeff King for the most wins at the 45-year event.
“We’ll see,” Kaiser told KYUK Radio in a finish line interview posted to the Kuskokwim 300 Facebook page when asked about the record. “Obviously we have to come back next year with a lot of good training and a good dog team and put it all together and see if we could do it again. And that’s not easy. Every one of these victories I’m very thankful for knowing it could be the last.”
King, of Denali Park, has raced the Kusko 27 times and last won in 2013. His other eight victories occurred between 1991-2006.
While this year’s 23-musher K300 field included plenty of big names, King was among those on the original roster who wound up not making the trip to Bethel. Four others with impressive resumes — Brent Sass, Jessie Holmes, Aaron Burmeister, Nic Petit — also withdrew for unknown reasons.
A frigid weather forecast no doubt had an impact. Although the sun shone at the finish line, the temperature was reportedly 23 below and felt even colder when factoring in the wind chill.
In the first 100 miles, defending Iditarod champion Ryan Redington, making his K300 debut, sped to a lead of 55 minutes by the Kalskag outbound checkpoint.
Kaiser, 35, tried to shrug off this early deficit.
“What other people are doing doesn’t really affect how we run our race,” Kaiser told KYUK. “When you got a guy an hour ahead of you right off the bat, it’s a little nerve-wracking. But all we can do is stick to our game plan and hope that it works out.”
Pete Kaiser at the finish line. Photos courtesy of the Kuskokwim 300
By the halfway point of Aniak, Kaiser had reeled in Redington (who ultimately placed seventh) but trailed Failor by 12 minutes.
At the Kalskag inbound checkpoint, Kaiser had overtaken Failor by a mere two minutes.
But on the run from Kalskag to Tuluksuk, Kaiser unleashed the fastest split of the race (5 hours, 1 minute to Failor’s 5:36) to all but clinch the victory.
“You’re trying to go as fast as you can go but stay in that safe zone for the dogs. I think we managed that real well this year,” Kaiser told KYUK. “We try to string together consistent runs from the start all the way to the finish.”
Kaiser, an Alaska Native and the 2019 Iditarod champion, finished with all 12 of his dogs while some of his competitors finished with as few as five.
“With this fast of a trail and hard of a trail I’m surprised to get a full string (of dogs) around the course,” Kaiser told KYUK. “They’re very healthy and durable.”
Kaiser finished at 9:25 a.m. on Sunday with an elapsed time of 37 hours, 25 minutes which included 10 hours of mandatory rest. He earned $28,500 of the $185,000 purse, one of the richest in mushing.
Failor was next at 10:06 a.m.
“(Kaiser’s) the best ever for the Kusko, top to bottom designed for this race,” Failor told KYUK. “His kennel is groomed to win this race.”
Kaiser has now won 8 of the last 10 Kuskokwim races. He has raced 15 times total and first won on his seventh attempt.
Failor, who has now placed second to Kaiser four times, was the 2019 champion while Richie Diehl of Aniak won in 2021. Kaiser was runner-up in both those races.
Travis Beals of Seward placed third at 10:46 a.m., followed by Hunter Keefe at 11:26 a.m. and Diehl at 11:50 a.m.
At 11:53 a.m., Kattijo Deeter of Fairbanks took sixth, the top female finisher at the Kusko since DeeDee Jonrowe was third in 2002.
The Kusko was the third major race of the season and featured the largest margin of victory. Previously, 16-year-old Emily Robinson topped Brent Sass by one minute at the Knik 200 while Sass bounced back to edge Jessie Holmes by two minutes at the Copper Basin 300. Kaiser, who lives in Bethel, did not travel to either of those races.