Lance Mackey withdraws from 2017 race

Four-time Iditarod champion Lance Mackey has withdrawn from the 2017 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, citing health reasons, the Iditarod Trail Committee announced on its Facebook page on Sept. 26.

No details were given, other than the ITC best wishes to Mackey “as he continues his journey improving his health.”

Mackey is a four-time back-to-back Iditarod champion, and also a four-time Yukon Quest champion. He has also run the Kusko 300 the Kobuk 440, the Wyoming Stage Stop Race, the Anchorage Fur Rondy, the All Alaska Sweepstakes and other races.

He finished 43rd in Iditarod 2015, just behind his younger brother, Jason Mackey.

He is the son of Dick Mackey, who won the 1,049-mile race from Anchorage to Nome in 1978 by the closest margin in history, beating another Iditarod champion, Rick Swenson.

While the teams came in neck and neck, Race Marshall Myron Gavin decided in favor of Dick Mackey on grounds that the nose of Mackey’s lead dog crossed the finish line first. The elder Mackey had eight dogs in harness, while Swenson had six.

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Lance Mackey came in first in the Iditarod in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2001. Another of Dick Mackey’s sons, Rick Mackey, won the Iditarod in 2004 and 2013.

Lance Mackey first ran the Iditarod in 2001, and his total winnings to date added up to $396,942, according to the ITC.

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