Article 12 – The Pas Dog Races
By Ramsey Cook
The 2019 edition of the Northern Manitoba Annual Trappers’ Festival has come and gone like it does every year. The festival which is held in the town of The Pas, Manitoba, in the core of the winter month of February, is an event of enjoyment for many people across the country, and sometimes, people from abroad. According to Lambert (1988), the festival was established to celebrate the heritage and culture of the northern trappers who were known to gather during the early fur trade. Over the years, there have been concerted efforts by stakeholders to help sustain the festival with the goal of preserving many of the skills and modes of entertainment that the original group of trappers indulge themselves in through sporting competitions and other activities.
Over the course of my life, I’ve been watching and hearing about The Pas World Championship Dog Race. Being a sprint dog racer myself, I am a huge fan, and I pay attention to all the racers year-round, absorbing what they do in terms of training and racing. I love the sport and tradition. I remember first hearing of The Pas Word Champion Dog Race when I was a young boy. An older gentleman by the name of Raymond Cook would tell me about this race and how many times he had won.
The name Raymond Cook is well known when it comes to The Pas World Champion Dog Race. Cook’s kennel has won the race more times than any other kennel; he perfected his dog team specifically for this race. Cook was the guy to beat. His first championship was in the 1950s. In the 80s and 90s, his son was the main racer for the kennel. Now they have retired their kennel and sold everything. The Pas World Championship Dog Races are up for grabs each year.
In the last two decades, the Streeper’s kennel from British Colombia has won the majority of the races in The Pas and also throughout the country. With the absence of the Streeper’s team this year, the race is up for grabs for anyone. On February 14, 2019, the first heat of the races started at ten o’clock. We saw a spectacular heat from Anny Malo of Quebec. Four minutes behind Malo was Richard Beck of North West Territories. Five minutes behind Malo was Eric Laforce who is also from Quebec, and he was last year’s champion. A few seconds behind Laforce was Danny Beaulieu of North West Territories, who was closely followed by a local Manitoban, Rachel Courtney of St. Malo, Manitoba.
Throughout the three-day race, Malo went on to win each heat, making her the 2019 The Pas World Champion Dog Racer and also going down in history as the first female to win this title. This was a huge accomplishment for a female in what is generally known to be a male-dominated sport. Malo also won the Pedigree Stage Stop races in the United States prior to coming to The Pas, due to a huge mistake by the Streeper’s team which took a wrong turn in the final heat.
Laforce had a phenomenal third day, staying behind Malo and taking a five-minute lead from the rest of the pack, making him the runner-up in the championship race. Beck would fall back on the third day of the races, placing him three minutes behind Laforce, and taking third place. With a steady three-day race, Beaulieu would take fourth place being five minutes behind Beck. One could see throughout the three days that Courtney’s team was feeling the fatigue, coming in with a slower time each day, but they still managed to hold the fifth-place spot in the race.
The one musher I noticed that was not in the ten-dog class this year was legendary Dave Hochman. I knew Hochman personally since I was a little boy, idolizing him and his dog teams. Hochman is a well-known dog musher across the country, especially to Northerners because he regularly attends the race circuit in the northern parts of the country. Hochman has been mushing for over thirty years, beginning when he was just fourteen years old with a bike and two dogs. One of Hochman’s memorable years was in 2008 when he won the The Pas World Championship Dog Race, as well as his other accomplishments throughout the province. Hochman entered the six-dog race this year due to the downsizing of his kennel, necessitated by his failure to win any prize money last year.
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One of the up-and-coming dog mushers that is making a name for himself is Darcy Garson of Thompson Manitoba. I also paid close attention to Garson. Garson has a fairly small dog kennel of up to 20 dogs. Garson tends to compete in the smaller classes when attending dog races. This year was Garson’s third appearance in The Pas Six-Dog Race. He placed fourth last year, only a couple of minutes behind the first-place winner. It was Garson’s goal to win the The Pas Six-Dog class this year. He was specifically training to win this race. Garson was one of the favourites to place in the top three again.
Unfortunately, roughly three minutes into this year’s race, Garson’s sled runner broke off of his ski. The runners on the bottom of the sled are what make the sled glide through the snow easier. When you do not have these runners on your sled, it’s like a parachute holding you back. In spite of his predicament, Garson still managed to place in the middle of the pack with the broken runner. This meant that he still had time to catch the leader of the race the next day. Garson did not have an extra runner with him because these do not often break. Garson had to do some running around searching for extra runners. When Garson finally managed to replace the runners, he did what he calls a “rookie’s mistake.” He forgot to tighten the four bolts that hold these runners to the skis. Consequently, right off the start of the second heat, the runners both came off, thereby making his sled one big drag for his dog team. Garson still managed to finish in the middle of the pack of 21 mushers, which was pretty impressive. With no prize money, Garson mentioned that he will not be attending a race in Saskatchewan but would attend the races closer to home.
The Pas World Championship dog races is one of the biggest dog races in North America. We usually see racers from all over the country come to the races. At times, we also see international mushers come too. According to all the mushers, this is one of the “big ones” to win. This is a good race environment; this race will let you know if you are doing the right or wrong thing when it comes to training in the ten or six-dog class. If you win either of the races, you go down as a good dog man, and you will gain the respect of other dog kennels.
References
Lambert, S. (1988, April). Manitoba society history. Retrieved febuary 21, 2019, from The Northern Manitoba Trappers’
Festival: A Brief History: http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/mb_history/15/trappersfestival.shtml
Pedigree® Stage Stop Race. (2019, February 03). Retrieved from Pedigree stage stop race:
https://www.wyomingstagestop.org/
About the Author: My name is Ramsey Cook; I am from split lake Manitoba. I have lived in the north most of my life. I am currently enrolled in the Natural Resources Management Technology (NRMT) program at the University College of the North, The Pas Manitoba. I decided to continue with my education when I was working in Churchill, Manitoba with Manitoba Conservation in the Polar Bear alert program. I considered myself extremely fortunate to have been granted the privilege of working with wild life in this remote part of the world. I have also worked as a wild-land firefighter for 16 years. It was a job which I started at the age of 16. My extracurricular activities include: playing hockey, trapping, and hunting. I am also very passionate about dog races. When I am not running my own team of dogs, I enjoy watching other mushers in races around the world.
Instructor’s Remarks: Ramsey is a student in the Natural Resources Management Technology (NRMT) program here at UCN. This reportorial essay on The Pas Dog Races, which is a major event in the annual Northern Manitoba Trappers’ Festival in the town of The Pas, was submitted in the IDS.1003 course. Ramsey brings a fresh perspective to the reportage on the dog races by educating the reader about some of the challenges that mushers encounter in their individual quest to be crowned champion – Dr. Joseph Atoyebi