In a surprise twist this year, the Canadian Championship Dog Derby was won by a member of the Beck family.
Chances are you knew that already.
James McCarthy/NNSL photo
Richard Beck proved yet again that he's still a perennial contender in the 10-dog 150-mile main event race as he took top spot for the 12th time on Sunday, crossing the finish line in a cumulative time of seven hours, seven minutes, 35 seconds. He beat his son, Brent Beck, by nearly 16 minutes although sonny boy had the last laugh on Sunday as he managed to beat his dad to the line to win the third stage by 50 seconds.
The elder Beck received the championship trophy and the Yellowknifer Knife, which was presented for the 47 th time to the top Yellowknife musher in the race.
After receiving the knife, Beck described just how much winning the knife still means to him, even after winning it 11 times before.
“I won't use this knife to open a can of beans,” he said.
The conditions for this year's race were faster than normal because of the warmer weather; Richard Beck's opening 50-mile leg on March 29 was under three hours, something race official Shalto Douglas said you don't normally see.
But Beck said he had an advantage.
“When you guys had minus-40 C here, I was racing in Wyoming at minus-5 C,” he said. “Sorry about that.”
Cai Reid ended up in third place, eight minutes behind Brent Beck, while Trevor Lizotte came in fourth and Grant Beck made a welcome return to the main event and finished in fifth place.
He said it felt really good to get back out and race again.
“I've been away from the race for a while and you're gonna have a hard time keeping me off the runners now,” he said.
He also serves as the race's president and said the interest in the race itself is beginning to grow again.
“It's been growing every year,” he said. “We had the potential this year to have 12 to 15 teams (in the main event) but the weather in the south was a lot warmer than we had up here so we may have missed some teams. The teams that were here, though, were very professional and were great to race with. It was just a great weekend overall.”
There were other races during the weekend's festivities, including the six-dog 32-mile race, which happened over March 29 and 30. Eric Laforce of Quebec was the winner of that with a cumulative time of one hour, 44 minutes and 32 seconds.
Laforce said the trails this year were enjoyable to race on.
“I enjoyed racing a lot this year,” he said. “The weather was good and the people, too. Trevor Lizotte took care of me at his house and Anthony (Beck) passed me some of his dogs for the six-dog race.”
Alexis Campbell won the four-dog 16-mile race in a time of 22 minutes, 56 seconds while Nicky Fordy of Fort Resolution was the youngest winner of the weekend as the four-year-old captured the Ava Lizotte Memorial two-dog race with most of the credit going to his aunt, TJ Fordy, whose dogs helped him to victory.
His speech was also the best of the night.
“Auntie's dogs are the best because they're the fastest,” he said.
Canadian Championship Dog Derby results
All mushers from Yellowknife unless noted
10-dog main event
1st – Richard Beck, 7:07:35
2nd – Brent Beck, 7:23:23
3rd – Cai Reid, 7:31:26
4th – Trevor Lizotte, 7:41:04
5th – Grant Beck, 7:57:44
6th – Danny Beck (Hay River), 7:58:17
7th – Yumi Kuromasu (Japan), 8:05:53
8th – Cody Lee (Nova Scotia), 9:18:07
Six-dog race
1st – Eric Laforce (Quebec), 1:44:32
2nd – Zack Campbell, 1:49:13
3rd – Eric Beck (Fort Resolution), 1:50:23
4th – TJ Fordy (Hay River), 1:53:32
5th – Dexter Lafferty (Fort Resolution), 2:00:14
6th – Anthony Beck, 2:01:02
7th – Alisha Blake. 2:01:58
8th – Taryn Beck, 2:05:12
9th – Jessie Landers, 2:07:24
10th – Caitlyn Beck, 2:27:44
Four-dog race
1st – Alexis Campbell, 22:56
2nd – Eric Beck, 23:35
3rd – Jessie Landers, 23:38
4th – TJ Fordy, 24:09
5th – Dexter Lafferty, 24:30
6th – Anthony Beck, 25:18
7th – Kaitlyn Taylor, 26:15
8th – Andrea Westerhauf, 26:42
9th – Taryn Beck, 30:27
source: Canadian Championship Dog Derby