Iditarod Rookie Musher Challenges Race Officials After Emergency Incident

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Rookie musher Brenda Mackey faced controversy after scratching from the 53rd Iditarod race in Tanana last Wednesday following a troubling incident with her dog. During her race toward Ruby, one of her dogs, named Jett, became ill, prompting Mackey to activate her emergency beacon, raising concerns about the well-being of her team.

“I literally thought she was dying in front of me,” Mackey told Alaska’s News Source. “In all my racing years, [the beacon] is something I’ve never even looked at, and I pushed it like five times.” However, race officials initially released a statement claiming she arrived with 14 healthy dogs, a statement she later clarified was false.

Approximately half an hour after Jett collapsed, fellow rookie musher Emily Ford came to Mackey’s aid. “By the time I get back, [Jett’s] eyes look normal. She was able to stand,” Mackey recalled. “I don’t think it was really taken very seriously because she did look good when she got back to the checkpoint.”

Upon her return to Tanana, Mackey received the standard paperwork to officially scratch from the race. Presuming her disqualification stemmed from the emergency beacon activation, she later learned that officials had not received the call, leading to miscommunication regarding her voluntary withdrawal.

“I mentioned I had pushed my button and [an official] said, ‘Well, we hadn’t received any signal of that,’” she stated. “I wasn’t computing at the time that that is a scratch form.” Mackey decided to fly Jett to Anchorage for further veterinary evaluation after noting abnormal laboratory results, awaiting additional test outcomes.

Following her early exit from the race, Mackey expressed frustration over the handling of her situation. “The strange things that [happened] afterwards — they do bother a person a little bit,” she said. “I didn’t even have 14 dogs in harness … That was completely inaccurate.”

The Iditarod Trail Committee (ITC) later commented on the situation, asserting that Mackey “unfortunately did not activate [the emergency beacon] correctly.” As of Tuesday, the ITC had not responded to requests for further comment regarding the incident.

Mackey is part of a storied lineage within the Iditarod. Her family has a rich history in the race: her grandfather, Dick Mackey, was a competitor in the inaugural race of 1973 and won in 1978; her father, Rick, achieved victory in 1983, and her uncle, Lance, captured the title for four consecutive years from 2007 to 2010.

“I feel as if I’ve been ‘thrown under the bus’,” Mackey added, referring to the aftermath of the event. “It’s frustrating to say the least.”