Hope Race Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, and Yukon Quest in the same year. Hope Race The Hope Race or Hope Sled Dog Race is a defunct international sled dog race between Nome, Alaska and Anadyr, Russia, across the Bering Strait. The race was established in 1991, shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union, and according to information on the race's (now inactive) Web site, was run as recently as 2004. Racers covered 1,200 miles, but did not actually race across the Bering Strait. Teams instead were shipped across the strait on boats and raced on land. In 1995, Alaska musher
Sled dog racing Dog Derby mushers were international celebrities to such degree that one photogenic female musher named Lydia Hutchinson was tapped by a producer to star in his movie. She may have been on her way to being a movie star when she died of pneumonia in 1930. The American Dog Derby popularized dogsled racing in the 1920s and other dogsled races were organized in towns and cities across North America and Northern Europe in its wake. The most famous long-distance race is the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Also known as the "Last Great Race on Earth", the Iditarod is roughly