Despite having missed a veterinary check that resulted in their withdrawal from the race, Yukon Quest mushers Ed Stielstra and Laura Ness are now registered to join the other competitors at the start line, after race officials reversed their preliminary decision to withdraw Stielstra.
Stielstra and Ness, who both race for Stielstra’s kennel, allegedly experienced tough road conditions that made the trip to the race site longer than expected. They missed the required veterinary checkup.
Dog teams that have finished the 1,000 race in prior years are required to undergo a physical examination within two weeks of the race’s start before competing again. For first-time entrants like Stielstra, regulations state that they must be present for the veterinary check at the Yukon Quest start or be disqualified. According to race manager Fabian Schmitz, breaking this rule was just cause for withdrawal from the race. “I withdrew him for missing the vet check in a group decision with the rules committee,” Schmitz says. Traveling with Stielstra, Michigan musher Laura Ness made the voluntary decision to drop out.
After further consideration, however, Schmitz says he thought it was justifiable to bring the case to the rules committee for a second discussion. In a reversal, they ruled that Stielstra and Ness were allowed to re-enter the race. Stielstra must get his dogs checked by a Yukon-Quest-approved veterinarian and pay a $1,000 fine. Schmitz says he’s not sure if something like this has happened before.
Musher Severin Cathry was not so lucky. Cathry was withdrawn due to veterinarian errors; he failed to prove that his dogs had the required vaccines needed to enter the race. He has not been allowed to re-enter.
Per usual, Schmitz says that the conversations surrounding these unusual, pre-race events won’t be over until after the race.
“I think, every year, we have individual instances that are important to rule. And you look at the rules again and you say, like, ‘do we have to change it or not?’ Every year, the set of rules are changing and improving. So I’m pretty sure, out of this incident, they’re gonna look at it again.”
According to Schmitz, re-registration will not affect Ness and Stielstra’s starting positions. Per regulation, starting position and bib number will be decided by random draw. The 2017 Yukon Quest starts on February 4th at 11 a.m. in Whitehorse, Canada, and ends in Fairbanks.
