Young musher stuns top dogs at Copper Basin

Little in the background of Jake Berkowitz suggested the Minnesota transplant would be the racer to topple mushing maestro Lance Mackey in a major sled-dog race while, for good measure, shattering the race record.
He was young, just 24.
He was less experienced, including an Iditarod Trail Race debut three years ago in 65th place.
He was, well, a stout fellow, weighing in at 220 pounds after dropping about 80.
He raced equally stout dogs, including 85-pound team dog named Solomon.
But on Monday morning, Berkowitz shepherded his 11-dog team across the Paxson finish line of the Copper Basin 300 sled dog race, 72 minutes ahead of the four-time defending Iditarod champ and a slew of other top racers who filled out one of the biggest and toughest fields in Copper Basin history.
"I didn't go into it thinking that in a million years this dog team could win," he said by phone afterward. "Speed I knew they had. But they never seemed to get tired."
Berkowitz's effort -- hinted at last month by his runner-up finish to Mackey in the Sheep Mountain 150 -- instantly reserved him a spot among some of the sports biggest upsets:
• Libby Riddles historic 1985 Iditarod victory after never finishing higher than 18th in the race to Nome;
• A decade later, unheralded 19-year-old Ramey Smyth's Kuskokwim 300 victory over four Iditarod champions.
"It was definitely a new feeling for me," Berkowitz said. "There's a lot of pressure on the rabbit. Everyone is trying to keep up with you and match your run time. And you don't have any sled marks in front of you. It's something Lance has definitely mastered."
Berkowitz never faltered. He led through most of the race checkpoints, and in the final stretch where Mackey often makes a charge, Berkowitz widened his lead.
"He's the greatest musher in the world," Berkowitz said of Mackey. "I would have no problem taking second place to him in every race in the world."
Berkowitz estimated his dogs had averaged 11.5 mph on the trail, hardened by daily 50-mile training runs done at a constant 13-14 mph from his Big Lake home.
Pixie, a 2-year-old female, and Mullet, 2-year-old male, took turns up front, with Pixie shouldering most of the load.
"They love to please," Berkowitz said of the pair and the rest of his 12-dog team. "They're kind of your true junkyard dogs -- like some super junkyard pitbull. But they've got that attitude to go and go all the time."
Even big beefy Solomon, an 85-pounder who has fathered many of the dogs in Berkowitz's 65-animal Big Lake kennel, didn't slow the team down.
"He's big and he's jolly, eating and running," Berkowitz said. "I run very large dogs."
Many of the Berkowitz's dogs came from Iditarod veteran Jon Little, the fourth-place Iditarod finisher in 2002, who sold his animals when he moved out of state.
"That's a proven dog team," four-time Iditarod champion Martin Buser said by phone from his Big Lake home. "Even though Jon only had a small kennel, he had really good dogs."
When four-time Iditarod champion Jeff King of Denali Park retired after last year's race, Berkowitz picked up a couple of dogs from King's main team too.
"I've got a very young kennel," Berkowitz said. "I had 21 puppies this summer -- a bumper crop."
His growing kennel and a new Big Lake address put a third Iditarod out of reach for this year.
"Racing is my true passing, but financially it was just getting more and more difficult to do it every single year. I just decided to take a year off. My dogs are leased out to a few friends."
That means the Kukokwim 300, with a first place prize of $20,000 -- some $5,000 more than Copper Basin's entire purse -- will serve as Berkowitz's Iditarod later this month. The fat $100,000 purse typically attracts a strong field; four-time Iditarod champion Martin Buser and 2009 Yukon Quest winner Sebastian Schnuelle have already signed up.
Don't expect that to faze Berkowitz.
As a 19-year-old growing up in St. Paul, Minn., he loved being outdoors, recalled his father, Sheldon.
"Of course, my vision was of him going off to college," dad recalled. "I talked to him about whether he might want to be a doctor or a surgeon."
Scratch that.
"He announced to us one weekend around Thanksgiving that he'd wanted to be a dog musher," Sheldon said. "Totally out of the blue."
Before long, Berkowitz was bound for Michigan's Upper Peninsula to work in Iditarod veteran Ed Stielstra's kennel. In 2008, he took Stielstra's second-string team to Nome and soon was calling Alaska home.
"He found a passion," Sheldon said, "and he absolutely loves it. The dogs train hard, and he trains hard. He runs an immense amount so the dogs don't have so much weight to pull."
That human cargo is down to 220 pounds and Berkowitz tries to help his team by ski poling or running -- and taking little more than the mandatory gear.
"He lost a ton of weight," Sheldon said.
"I could lose another 20," Berkowitz countered.
But nothing slowed Berkowitz's freight-train team that was rolling so well along the Copper Basin's rugged trails that the musher dropped one of his main leaders at Wolverine Lodge, about two-thirds of the way through the 300-mile race.
"I just wanted to save him," Berkowitz said. "Everything was going just right."
Mackey finished second, 72 minutes back, with Gerry Willomitzer of Whitehorse third, a half-hour behind Mackey.

Copper Basin 300
Finishers Monday in Paxson
1) Jake Berkowitz, 11:49 a.m.; 2) Lance Mackey, 1:01 p.m.; 3) Gerry Willomitzer, 1:33 p.m.; 4) Brent Sass, 1:44 p.m.; 5) Sven Haltmann, 2:36 p.m.; 6) Dan Kaduce, 2:39 p.m.; 7) Jessica Hendricks, 2:48 p.m.; 8) Mitch Seavey, 3:02 p.m.; 9) Aliy Zirkle, 3:22 p.m.; 10) Ken Anderson, 3:37 p.m.; 11) Sonny Lindner, 3:43 p.m.; 12) Joshua Cadzow, 3:54 p.m.; 13) Colleen Robertia, 4:06 p.m.; 14) Zoya DeNure, 4:40 p.m.; 15) Sebastian Schnuelle, 4:57 p.m.; 16) Allen Moore, 5:36 p.m.
Scratched -- John Solem, Wade Marrs, Misha Pedersen, Matt Hayashida, Ramey Smyth, Kolby Morrison, Renee Rember, Mike Ellis.
Withdrawn -- Travis Cooper, Judy Currier, Manuela Albicker