QRILL Pet’s Thomas Wærner in training/Aker Biomarine
Update: Wærner seals the deal for the QRILL Pet Mushing Team with a victory of more than five and half hours over three-time champ Mitch Seavey.
Only months ago, the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race announced it had “joined forces” with Norway’s Aker Biomarine, and today Aker’s main man is on his way to winning Alaska’s trademarked “Last Great Race.”
Forty-six-year-old Norwegian Thomas Wærner, the owner of Berserk kennel based in Synnfjell and the titular head of The QRILL Pet Mushing Team – was this morning resting with his team in White Mountain, the Iditarod’s pivotal penultimate checkpoint.
Dog teams are required by race rules to stay there for eight hours. Historically, if the race leader has a more than an hour on the next team when that stop is made, he or she will win unless the weather intervenes.
The last time that happened was in 2014 when four-time champ Jeff King from Denali Park headed off into a storm, got blown of his sled, lost his team, had to be rescued, and dropped out of the race.
Behind him, Aliy Zirke from Two Rivers in Central Alaska made it through to the Safety checkpoint only about 20 miles from the finish line. Hearing reports of “hurricane force winds” ahead, she holed up there to wait until the storm eased.
That opened the door for third-place musher Dallas Seavey to lead the race into Nome and claim the second of his four victories.
Seavey, who was entangled in a 2017 doping case after finishing second in that year’s race,isn’t running the Iditarod this year. Instead, as another member of The QRILL Pet Mushing Team, he is providing commentary for QRILL Pet Arctic World Series (QRILLPAWS) coverage of the race.
He shouldn’t have much trouble predicting this one a win for Wærner, who is now five hours in front of Seavey’s dad, Mitch, in White Mountain. The elder Seavey’s team was slightly slower than Wærner on the run in from Elim, but Mitch did manage to add about another half hour to his lead on Montana’s Jessie Royer.
There is no hint Mitch can close the gap on Wærner along the coast tonight with the forecast calling for 24 degrees, light snow and a 10 mph wind.
“Thomas the beserker in the lead,” the QRILLPAWS website was headlining this morning. The video report that went along with the latest news was unfortunately unavailable except for a fee.
Money, money, money
QRILL PAWS’ You-Tube-channel coverage of the the Iditarod started with the promise of free, global video coverage of the race, but for reasons unexplained U.S. coverage has now moved behind the Iditarod’s paywall.
“QRILL PAWS, owned by Aker BioMarine, was created to promote the sport of long-distance dog mushing and to capture the world-class dog care that the sport is famous for. The QRILL PAWS series is set to deliver a daily highlight show to broadcasters and news agencies….”
A query to Aker’s three-person media team asking what happened to the “open-for-all” coverage has yet to be answered.
The Iditarod is and has been facing financial problems. A number of sponsors from the Lower 48 – or Outside as Alaskans call the rest of the country – abandoned the race last year under pressure from animal rights activists who contend the 1,000-mile, 10-day race is too hard on dogs.
This year, long time sponsors Alaska Airlines and Anchorage Chrysler-Dodge Jeep Ram announced the 2020 Iditarod would be their last race. People for the Ethical Treatment (PETA) tried to claim victory for the Alaska Airlines departure, but the airline denied that was the case.
Alaska Air long sponsored the Leonhard Seppala Humanitarian Award given the musher veterinarians believed provided the best dog care during the race.
Behind the scenes, there were rumblings the company wanted more say over dog care in the wake of the Seavey doping scandal. Some of the race’s 40 to 45 volunteer veterinarians were not happy when the Iditarod Trail Committee resolved a doping battle with Seavey by apologizing to him and saying it believed his doped team had somehow been sabotaged, although there is no evidence to back that idea.
The Iditarod also terminated its relationship with Morrie Craig, who headed the doping-control program. After that happened, the program’s on-the-ground coordinator in Alaska quit. She has since raised questions about the adequacy of the new doping-control program.
Death in the family
The Anchorage-Chrysler departure from Iditarod had been expected by some after the death of 78-year-old, company founder Rod Udd in 2017. Up until his death, Udd was the Iditarod’s most benevolent fan.
“Udd is known as ‘Idita-Rod’ due to his obsessive love of the race,” reporter Brian Phillips once observed in ESPN’s Grantland.
Many in business in Alaska long believed that under Udd’s leadership Anchorage Chrysler – which annually awarded race winners a new Dodge truck worth almost as much as the purse – was putting far more into the Last Great Race than it was getting out of it in advertising value.
Businesses have had trouble linking sales to Iditarod promotion.
A major outdoor retailer and one-time major Iditarod sponsor – Cabela’s – scaled back its sponsorship of the race in 2010 and finally ended it altogether . A Nebraska-based company that built a huge franchise around the sales of hunting and fishing gear, Cabela’s joined the Iditarod in the 2000s as a prime sponsor and a backer of King.
At the time, the company believed it could leverage the two to boost its sales of cold-weather gear. It was soon marketing a whole line of Iditarod-themed outdoor gear endorsed by King.
Most of it is now gone or rebranded as “Trans-Alaska Cold Weather Clothing,”and there is nothing to indicate this shift has anything to do with PETA, which hates hunting and firearms more than it does Iditarod. Both of the former remain mainstays of Cabela’s business.
Cabela’s bailed in 2010 when a major recession hit the U.S., and the it was forced to weigh which of its marketing schemes were posting the biggest returns. Iditarod clearly didn’t measure up.
Before Cabela’s entered the scene, The Timberland Company was a major Iditarod sponsor. A New Hampshire-based shoe company trying to broaden its sales of outdoor apparel in the 1980s, it also left Iditarod after concluding the race wasn’t a good marketing fit.
Had Iditarod sponsorship translated into tens of millions of dollars in profits for Timberland, Cabela’s, Alaska Airlines or other sponsors which have come and gone, there is little doubt that the company’s would have ignored anything PETA had to say – if they were even paying attention to a fringe organization which made its name as one of the country’s noisiest paper tigers.
A better fit
Today, the Iditarod’s major sponsors are the oil company ExxonMobil, the mining company Donlin Gold, and GCI, an Anchorage-based and built telecom and cable-TV company now owned by the Colorado-based Liberty Interactive Corp.
ExxonMobil and Donlin are engaged in what has been called “image sponsoring.”
Image also attaches to GCI’s involvement, but it has a practical interest in that it is the largest provider of cellular phone service in rural Alaska. It offers coverage along most of the Iditarod from Unalakleet for 250 miles north and west to Nome.
And then there is Aker, which Iditarod bills as a partner.
“We are proud to be a part of QPAWS, along with the Femundlopet (in Norway), Volga Quest (in Russia) and John Beargrease (in Minnesota),” Iditarod CEO Rob Urbach said in announcing the relationship in October.“With the investments in digital visualization technology and innovative television production, we have great confidence that we will be showcasing our sport in a more experiential and compelling way.”
What exactly the relationship between Iditarod and Aker has never been made publicly clear, but QPAWS appears to be picking up some of the production costs for the “Iditarod Insider,” the race’s answer to the NFL Network.
When the online, pay-for-view operation launched back before the new millennium, Iditarod was hopeful it would bring in millions of dollars per year. Those hopes have never been fulfilled.
The race has not revealed its 2020 budget, but its Internal Revenue Service Form 990 filing for 2018 – the latest available – reports the costs of putting on the Iditarod top $4.5 million even with the majority of the race-managing labor contributed by volunteers.
Insider revenues in 2018 were reported as $375,615 with a cost of $258,399 for a net return of $117,216. Clearly if Iditarod hopes to support itself with the Insider, it needs to grow the number of online viewers significantly.
Aker clearly believes sled-dog races can be more useful in selling pet food than in selling outerwear. The idea is that if it can show its pet food additive makes Iditarod dogs run faster, a lot of pet owners will want to feed dog foods with that additive.
“‘Specialized in high-quality products derived from Antarctic krill, we have developed an ingredient that will enhance your pet food brand. Our product delivers great nutritional benefits to pets and originates from one of the world’s most sustainable fisheries.”
A Wærner victory in the Iditarod can’t help but boosts the idea that Qrill Pet is a key ingredient in the dog food of champions. How that translates to the Iditarod being a sporting event more will want to watch only time will tell.
Absolutely, the Iditarod should go international. Mushing is widely popular in north-lands (or at elevations, like around the Alps, or along the Rockies), and it could be a whole lot more so. Half the north is in Russia.
If pictures of sled dogs and teams mushing down trails can sell a billion dollars worth of chow for pets that never know the joy of real work, don’t sweat the krill. PETA can sweat the krill.
Maybe the Iditarod should ultimately be one leg of a circumpolar run that takes all winter. Don’t be hung up on Junior High.
When the President shows up to stand on the runners for a blok or two on trucked-in snow, you’ll know you’re headed in the right direction.
Like it or not, the Norwegian style of racing dogs in LD events, ultimately will kill this sport…as it kills dogs. Iditarod ignored a golden opportunity to adapt to mounting and widening concerns about animal welfare in its event, and rather sold out to a corporate entity with questionable motives and environmentally dubious practices as its stock in trade. The latest long time sponsors to withdraw its support is understandable and logic collateral damage as a result of myopic thinking on the part of ITC.
No one turns over in their grave unless by a errant backhoe. Only the living like that idea to support a grievance. This thing is just NASCAR with dogs. Back in the start it was “Run what you brung” just like auto racing was. Not so much now.
Just off the CDC website. Panic much?
4,222 infected out of 360 million in the USA and 75 dead NATIONWIDE WITH THE BULK, IF NOT ALL BEING OVER 75YO between Jan 21, 2020 – 17 Mar, 2020.
Worldwide – 198,178
Deaths – 7,965
Recovered – 81,729
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/cases-in-us.html
Looking at the remaining sponsors for Iditarod and examining the fact that NONE of the remaining top sponsors are companies that have their headquarters located in Alaska speaks volumes…Canada, Colorado, Texas and Norway.
The race has never been a good marketing strategy and the remaining global conglomerates merely use their sponsorships as a “Write off” to compensate for the billions in revenue that these companies make.
I think that by firing Morrie Craig, the ITC has lost all integrity with the general public who lives in Alaska.
There was also no accountability or loss of winnings when Dallas’s team tested positive for Tramadol…instead they fired the messenger.
“After that happened, the program’s on-the-ground coordinator in Alaska quit.
She has since raised questions about the adequacy of the new doping-control program.”
Let’s face it, without an off season drug testing program there is no accountability for performance enhancing drugs given during training or up until a few days before the race.
PETA is able to mobilize activists in almost every state across the country and has shown how successful their email campaigns can be.
(Try deleting 250,000 messages in your inbox in a few months and quickly supporting an unpopular event gets old).
Alaska airlines and Chrysler can deny PETA pushed them over the edge, but who would want picketers showing up outside their headquarters and dragging a sled full of dead dogs outside the auto convention year after year?
The Iditarod trail will remain for many years to come, but the big dollar dog racing show is slowly coming to an end…maybe then there will be a return to more of a historical approach to dog sledding across the state?
P.S.
… the reason the “QPAWS” put it’s videos back behind the pay wall is to hide the fact that no one is watching them.
On YouTube you can see how many times the video was viewed and the last time I noticed there were 340 views before it went down…definitely not enough to support the production budget and definitely not enough to support the battle against a quarter of a million PETA supporters who want to see the race ended.
“The Antarctic krill population has decreased by as much as 80 percent since the 1970s. Scientists believe the primary reason may be global warming, or climate change. The Antarctic Peninsula is a key breeding ground for krill, and it’s warming faster than any other region on Earth. Increasing temperatures in the Antarctic also mean less sea ice, and algae beneath the ice is the primary food source for krill. Humans harvest Antarctic krill to use as food in fish farms and create krill oil products. Although krill fishing is limited and monitored, these activities also play a part in diminishing the Antarctic krill population.”
Ah, if Mackey only knew..just add a lil Qrill Pet with CBD and walla..WINNER!!!!
Always next year, possibly, maybe….argh
Have to say though I am really disappointed in Alaskan Airlines. Caving to a bunch of unhinged lunatics. Shameful.
Agree with you Bryan. Maybe they should rename the airlines, Seattle Airlines. I am pretty sure, judging by how they left John Beaton, co-discoverer of Iditarod’s gold, out of Alaska Airline’s 75th anniversary magazine, that they do not have the foggiest idea how much they are tied into the Iditarod Trail, the path the race runs over. Of course had there never been an Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race the old trace would have never been preserved in the Nation’s trail system. As the late Ray Petersen (CEO of Wien Airlines and Alaska’s foremost flying business historian) stated, “He (John Beaton) started Star Airlines. Back then he was the only one who could have.” Clarifying Petersen’s statement with Beaton’s step grandson Stu Ramstad, “Star as well as Bethel Air were originated by others. What Petersen was saying was that it was John Beaton who solidified them near their beginnings to make sure they stayed started, It was Grandpa’s injection of aircraft and capital that put those airlines on the strong foundation they needed to survive and thrive. Yep, trace the treads and Alaska (“Seattle”) Airlines is among other things, pulling out on a big part of its own heritage.
Forgot to include that AK Air grew out ot Star Airlines.
Good point Rod. Leaving founder and rich history out makes it official – Seattle Star. They can have it along with their PC crap.
Kudos to Anchorage Chrysler Dodge for contesting for Iditarod with their suppliers to the bitter end. Chuck and the local dealership understand how those pulling out are actually pulling out on the dogs. Too, the pull-outs are pulling out on the vast majority of Alaskans for the hosts of Iditarod’s tangible and intangible gifts they hold dear. Beloved Alaskan, the late Rod Ud must be turning over in his grave.