Ramy Brooks actually made it into the 11th place slot. There was a bit of a problem at the finish line.
Morgan and I ran into town this afternoon to get the mail and wander around town for a bit. When we heard that Ramy Brooks was coming in, we waited by the finish line.
Brooks had a dog expire somewhere between White Mountain and Safety.
White Mountain is the mandatory 8-hour rest and all the dogs undergo thorough checks by certified trail vets. The decision was made at Safety, with the approval of the race's marshall, that the dog be carried into Nome on the sled. According to rules, Brooks' status is open until a necropsy is performed and the cause of death determined.
Nothing bad happened to that dog. Brooks was choked up at the end. You could tell just standing there that he didn't care about the race while he knew about that dog. Brooks felt worse than anyone about that poor dog. He loves his dogs and he never would have had anything happen to him if he could avoid it.
A sad ending.
4 comments:
Thanks for the onsite view. I follow the Quest and the Iditarod from afar (Texas) and folks are starting to say awful things about Ramy . . . Folks who last Friday did not even know the race was happening!
Yeah, and now that we've heard more, I think he is getting a very bad rap. Those people that "saw" him hit a dog with a stick were in the way and he had to swerve to get out of their way. So there was a tangle up that he was trying to fix because of all that.
It now appears that what Ramy did was a lot worse than first thought. A friend of mine who has ITC connections told me he could still get permanently banned from the race. It's not over yet.
As I keep hearing more and more, it kind of worries me that maybe he wasn't perfect. The Iditarod, to the best of my knowledge, has not issued any public press release on this yet. That's the document I'm waiting for as they research this more.
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