Buddy Streeper, eyeing a record-tying title, leads after 2 days of Rondy sled dog championships

More than anyone lined up this weekend along Anchorage’s Fourth Avenue, Blayne “Buddy” Streeper knows the stakes.

Streeper, the nine-time winner of the Fur Rendezvous Open World Championship Sled Dog Race, grew up idolizing the legends of the sport. And with one more victory, he will cement his place among them.

Streeper came one step closer to that status Saturday, charting the fastest times in the first two races of the three-day championships. After passing eight-time winner Roland “Doc” Lombard with his victory last year, Streeper’s next win will tie him for the all-time mark of 10 victories set by mushing icon George Attla.

“This is what I love,” said Streeper before Friday’s race. “I love Alaska. I love big open-class teams. I love George (Attla) and Doc (Lombard) and the history. When I was a boy, that’s what I saw. That’s what I watched my dad and my family members do in those races and that’s what got me passionate about the sport.”

Streeper’s first-day time of 1 hour, 29 minutes and 43 seconds on the 26-mile course was more than three minutes better than second-place finisher Gary Markley, who finished in 1:32:58. His second-day time was 1:27:30, ahead of runner-up Greg Taylor, who ran second in a time of 1:29:52. That gave Streeper a comfortable seven-minute lead over the field going into Sunday’s final race.

Streeper, of Fort Nelson, British Columbia, said he altered his normal mushing schedule this winter with the idea of having his team at peak performance this weekend.

“We’re in a good spot, not just physically and mentally but just well prepared,” he said. “The whole idea of doing those changes was to set us up for 10. That’s our focus, to be here and be ready, whether we win it or not. But I want to be here ready to go and I’m ready to go right now.”

Streeper said that returning to Anchorage is something special — an opportunity to renew old friendships and soak in the history as well as the sights, smells and sounds.

“It’s just like no other dog race and you can’t explain it,” Streeper said. “We’ve raced everywhere. We go to Europe. I’ve been to New York. I’ve seen friends race in Australia and South Africa. It ain’t the Rendezvous. It’s just something else about it. And it’s smelling the hot dogs and the cooked onions and then seeing the fur hats, the guy with the big wolf head (hat) so we’re excited for it.”

Hugh Neff is a recognizable name to mushing fans, but mostly for his runs in distance races like the Iditarod and the Yukon Quest. But after his bid to run the 2023 Iditarod was denied, Neff decided to make his rookie run at the Open World Championships.

[Iditarod rejects veteran musher Hugh Neff’s application to run 2023 race]

“Usually we’re doing the ceremonial (Iditarod start) and I’m getting ready to have a bunch of beers and hot dogs thrown at me,” Neff joked. “The big difference in this race is that I’m 55 and I feel like a little kid. I’m all nervous, been up all night.”

Neff started out his career as a sprint musher in the late 1990s working for mushers like Lester Erhart and Gareth Wright. He said running the open championships is a full-circle experience for him.

“That was probably the greatest times of my life and I’ve done a lot of races all over,” he said. “For me, just being a part of the Native culture is what I think sprint mushing is. And I feel very fortunate to be able to do this.”

Neff admittedly didn’t have great expectations for a high finish and said he hadn’t done much special sprint-oriented training with his dog team. He finished the first day in last place after a run of 2:01:10 but ran a bit faster Saturday, running in 14th.

Neff is keenly aware of the sport’s history as well and said years ago, he entered the Yukon River Championship just to say he ran a race with Attla.

He said he met Attla in Erhart’s cabin in Tanana. The record-setting musher was preparing a meal for his dog team.

I said ‘Mr. Attla, it’s an honor to meet you’ and he actually had his hand in a bucket of food,” Neff said. “He was mixing up the dog food since that’s what we used to do back in the day. And he literally pulled his hand out of a bucket of food, covered in muck and shook my hand.”

[This weekend in Anchorage: Musical productions, ski and Mardi Gras parties, and plenty of Fur Rondy]

Farther down Fourth Avenue on Friday, another rookie was prepping her team for an inaugural run, the culmination of decades of dreams.

Yukon musher Mandy Johnson has been racing dogs around her home of Whitehorse for years. Her husband Armin Johnson had run the open championships before but 2023 was her turn.

“My husband normally runs the open team and I normally run the limited class,” she said. “This year we decided to switch just because it had been a dream of mine since I was a teenager. And I kind of had put it aside, you know, having kids and everything and so I said ‘You really got to do it.’ ”

Johnson came from a mushing family, although they didn’t do a lot of competitive racing. She said she was the only one of her siblings to continue the tradition. She finished the first day in 15th out of 17th mushers on Friday and ran in 13th on Saturday. Still, she said when she arrived on the scene to race Friday, it was a thrill.

“When you first turn down Fourth Avenue to park in the morning, you’re like, ‘Whoa, we’re here,’ ” she said.

Racing continues Sunday at noon.