Update — Thursday, April 5: According to Kobuk 440 race staff, there are currently 17 mushers signed up for the 2018 race.
(original story)
The 2018 Kobuk 440 Sled Dog Race is just over a week away, and so far, 14 17 mushers have signed up.
Some of the notables on the list currently include Iditarod veterans Nicolas Petit and Hugh Neff, as well as this year’s top-placed Iditarod rookie, Jessie Holmes. Out of the entire roster of teams registered to run the race from Kotzebue to Kobuk and back, about half are women.
According to the Kobuk 440 website, the entry fee has gone up $300, from $540 to $840. The winner of the 2018 race will receive 25% of the total pot. Since fewer than 20 mushers are currently registered, the funds remaining after the champion’s prize will be doled out among the total number of finishers at the end of the race.
The 2018 Kobuk 440 begins April 12th at 12:30pm in Kotzebue.
Correction: the first version of this story reported that 14 mushers had signed up for the 2018 Kobuk 440. Although this matched the count on the Kobuk 440 website at the time of our reporting, Kobuk 440 staff provided us an updated count, and our story has been corrected.
Image at top: file photo: past Iditarod champion Jeff King with his team in Shungnak during the 2015 Kobuk 440. Photo: Francesca Fenzi, KNOM.
