Reynolds wins World Championship Sled Dog Race
February 24, 2014
Meghan Murphy
907-474-7541
Dr. Arleigh Reynolds, associate dean of UAF's Department of Veterinary Medicine, won the 2014 Fur Rendezvous Open World Championship Sled Dog Race for the second time Sunday.
"It was a white-knuckle ride all the way through," Reynolds said.
He and his sled dogs traversed 75 miles of downtown Anchorage over three days. Fifteen sled dog teams raced on streets and through tunnels, whizzing by thousands of distractions in the form of spectators, moose and mouth-watering barbecues.
The victory is bittersweet, Reynolds said, because he will soon retire from racing to focus solely on the new joint professional veterinary medicine program between UAF and Colorado State University. The program will give preference to Alaska students and is scheduled to start classes in the fall of 2015.
Reynolds holds both a doctor of veterinary medicine degree and a PhD degree in veterinary medicine from Cornell University. He specializes in researching the relationship between nutrition and performance in sport dogs.
Reynolds is a veteran musher who competes in sprint races, where dogs run high speeds over relatively short distances. He is competing in two more races in March — the Open North American Sled Dog Championship and the Tok Sled Dog Race of Champions, both of which he won last year.
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Web: https: www.uaf.edu/vmed/