96th sled dog derby is one of many firsts

LACONIA — With the return of the World Championship Sled Dog Derby came a lot of firsts for spectators, mushers, and long-time club members and volunteers.

Spectator Paula Kilburn recently moved to New Hampshire from Massachusetts and saw the derby for the first time. She was impressed.

“I've been in New Hampshire three years now. I just can't believe all the different things I'm getting to see,” Kilburn said. “This was awesome. I’m so glad I came.”

This weekend was the first time since 2020 that a full race weekend was held. In 2021, 2023, and 2024, the race was cancelled, and conditions forced a shortened race in 2022. Race manager and trail boss Jim Lyman was ecstatic with the conditions of the derby this year.

“It's a very prestigious race. You got to make sure you have the right conditions. In the last few years, we didn't have enough snow. This year was perfect,” Lyman said. “It was good weather for the dogs, good weather for the mushers, and it was great weather for the spectators.”

Honoring legends

Lyman was missing a dear friend in this year’s derby. Anthony "Tony" Roux, 69, died on March 10 of 2023. This year’s derby was the first derby in recent years that Roux missed.

“He's a great friend of mine, and obviously I'll miss him forever,” Lyman said.

While Roux contributed in many ways to the derby, he was most notable for his role as the announcer. Lyman said that having grown up with sled dog racing, Roux knew how to talk to the crowd and all the mushers, including in English and French.

“He was born in the sled dog world, so he knew how to communicate with them,” Lyman said. “The Canadians, he could talk French.”

Having grown up in the Lakes Region, Roux did a lot of competitive sports such as water skiing, swimming and boating. He also spent his youth sled dog racing and in his later years volunteering his time for the Lakes Region Sled Dog Club. In the summers, he spent time on his family farm, tending to gardens, haying the fields on Cotton Hill, and racing horses. He also loved cooking and made his career in hospitality. Roux owned and ran Christmas Island Steakhouse, which was located on Weirs Boulevard in Laconia.

“The Roux family, they used to race dogs, way back when I raced dogs when we were kids. And then they used to own Christmas Island, and all the mushers used to go to Christmas Island and stayed there. And then, of course, [Tony] had the restaurant,” Lyman said.

Douglas “Dougie” Butler, a notable musher in the derby, and Vermont dairy farmer, who also died in 2023, was honored with Roux. He has been competing in sled dog races for almost 50 years. Derby Club President Jennifer Hollows said his impact on the derby came from his friendly personality. She said he often would sacrifice time on the trail to help other mushers, and won many sportsmanship awards because of it. He was also the subject of a film called "Underdog" about his life on his dairy farm, and his ambitions as a musher. Hollows said everyone called him "Hollywood" as he was often found with a camera crew around him.

While Hollows had not known him as long as the older generations of the derby, it was easy to get a sense of who he was after meeting him.

"He would just light up a room. Every single person he met, was a friend he hadn’t met yet," she said.

Emily Thomas-Kelly, of Rindge, New Hampshire, competed in her first sled dog race at the World Championship Sled Dog Derby. While placing last out of 13 in the six-dog race, she said she had a good time and learned a lot for her next race.

“I had fun, I learned a lot, there’s so much stuff, and all the other mushers were telling me little tricks and everything,” she said.

She was still learning what type of dogs she wanted for racing but mentioned that she obtained a few of Butler’s dogs.

“He had like 60 dogs. I actually have five of his dogs after he passed away, so I have a smorgasbord,” she said.

Racing

The first-place winner out of 10 for the unlimited races was Claude Bellerive, of Carette, Quebec Province, Canada, with a total time from all three races at two hours, 18 minutes and 12 seconds. This is the fourth time Bellerive has won. The six-dog race winner was Brittany Colbath, of Franklin, New Hampshire, with a total time of 50 minutes and 34 seconds. Gabriel Ramirez, of Peoa, Utah, won first in the three-dog race, with a total of 18 minutes and 10 seconds.

Thomas-Kelly’s son Aaron, 11, also competed for the first time, and got third out of five in the three-dog field, with a total time of 26 minutes and 12 seconds. Aaron was excited about his performance. As they were placing the trophies out on the table before the awards ceremony, he was seen admiring his own.

“I was really not expecting it,” he said.

The three-dog race is normally for kids under the age of 16 or 18, depending on the contest. But the real determination of whether you can graduate on to the six-dog race class is if a racer can prove their mettle on the sled.

“Basically, you have to prove that you can take the six or whatever around some turns,” Emily said. “If he can show that he can take a six, then, yeah, he can. He’s just going to have to show me some maturity too.”

Aaron’s training was slow and steady. He started with two dogs at first, then graduated up to three, and worked his way up to four to gain some confidence. But it’s not just increased speed that makes more dogs harder to control. Each dog thinks independently of each other, and learning how to control more dogs can be a difficult process.

“It's not like a car that you can tell every single thing. The dog has its own mind and you need to be able to handle how they're going,” Emily said.

Aaron’s seven-year-old brother Tavenner admires his mother and sibling, and spoke up about wanting to start participating as soon as possible.

Despite the hurdles the sled dog derby has faced in the past few years, Lyman considered the event a success, drawing thousands of people to watch.

“I think we put a great show and the sled dog club, in general, is still strong, and we end up with a lot of volunteers at the end,” he said. “It takes a lot of people to do this race and make it a successful event, and we showed that we can still do it.”