Dick Wilmarth Dick Wilmarth Dick Wilmarth (c.1942 – March 21, 2018) was a miner and trapper from Red Devil, Alaska who won the inaugural Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in 1973 with lead dog "Hotfoot". In a 2001 interview with the Anchorage Daily News, Wilmarth said he saw the 1973 Iditarod as not really a sled dog race but more of a time to enjoy the Alaska wilderness with friends. He assembled a 12-dog team just a few months before the race, obtaining dogs from Native villages on the Kuskokwim River. Thirty-five dog teams started the 1973 race and twenty-two finished. Competing
Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race reveals the results of tests on the dogs. Each team is composed of twelve to sixteen dogs, and no more may be added during the race. At least five dogs must be on the towline when crossing the finish line in Nome. Mushers keep a veterinary diary on the trail and are required to have it signed by a veterinarian at each checkpoint. Dogs that become exhausted or injured may be carried in the sled's "basket" to the next "dog-drop" site, where they are transported by the volunteer Iditarod Air Force to the Hiland Mountain Correctional Center at Eagle River