The Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race says it will work to increase its $125,000 US purse for next year.

Mushers are saying it's about time.

Phil Streeter, chair of the Quest's International Council, told attendees at the Feb. 25 finish banquet, the race had planned to enrich the award money this year.

'The Yukon Quest has worked hard over the last year to increase the purse,' he said, but added a longtime sponsor decided not to participate in this year's race and the purse had to remain the same.

The race hasn't boosted the award money since the 1997 race.

'We should be able to raise another $25,000,' said 16-year veteran musher Dave Dalton.

Three-time Quest musher Gerry Willomitzer previously told the Star one only needs to look at how the cost of living has changed since 1997 to realize the purse money needs to be raised.

'The price for keeping a dog team is largely dependent on the price of energy,' said Willomitzer.

'It's not like you take 14 dogs and tie them to a sled and go and whatever is happening in the world doesn't affect you. It's just the other way around. It really affects you very much, what happens out there with energy prices.'

Willomitzer said this year has been a key example of how energy prices can impact keeping a kennel.

Between the higher costs of energy and fuel, in the wake of 2005's Hurricane Katrina, and this year's poor training conditions, Willomitzer said he spent significantly more money trucking his dogs around the Yukon and Alaska.

'We burn a lot of gas to run dogs. It sounds funny, but we do. We make our trails with snow machines. We truck them to other training areas or go travelling. All the meat comes from down south, the freight rate has gone through the roof in the last couple years,' he said.

Keeping a kennel year-round costs about $30,000, said Willomitzer, meaning he's spent about $150,000 over the last five years he's been running dogs.

'Sometimes in the media, (the Quest is) presented as a quick, get-rich scheme. Ten days of running dogs and you get $30,000, isn't that great? But the people that come into the position to qualify, they've spent hundreds of thousands.'

The first finisher in the Quest currently receives $30,000 US. The second-placer gets $24,000 US and the third position takes home $18,000 US.

The award money then continues to decrease for the remaining 12 money placing stops. The fourth place finisher gets $12,000 US and the musher reaching the finish line in 15th position receives $1,500 US.

The award money given to the top 15 teams doesn't come anywhere near to even being cost recovery, said Willomitzer.

'No one in the Yukon makes money running dogs,' he said. 'You're just trying not to be 100 per cent broke in the spring. That's all it is.'

This year's third-place finisher William Kleedehn said, after running the race 10 times, for him one of the only real incentives to keep coming back to the Quest is to win some money to pay the bills.

'But there's only about three spots in this Quest race where you could recover enough money where you could go race again next year,' he said.

'All the other mushers there, I don't know how they can afford it. It costs them just as much money to run the race as it does me.'

Kleedehn estimates it costs a musher about $10,000 to prepare for and run the Quest.

Local musher Kyla Boivin agreed on the amount, but said she doesn't actually keep track of the true cost of training a team.

'If I kept track on how much I spend on dog food and gas for the dog truck and dog supplements and meat; if I kept track of it I'd be scared,' she said.

'All I know is, what better way to spend all your money than something you like to do?'

The real loss of income comes from taking time off work to do the training, said Kleedehn.

Willomitzer took a year's absence from his job as manager of the Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre to prepare his team for this year's race. He placed fifth.

'I wouldn't want to know how high that (income loss) is. It takes all year in preparation,' said Kleedehn.

But Kleedehn said he doesn't believe just the Quest can be blamed for the loss of income. Mushers make the choice to keep a kennel and would still be paying for them even if they weren't running the 1,600-kilometre race, he said.

Willomitzer, however, said the timing of the Quest in the racing season almost effectively prohibits mushers from entering other events.

'It's dead centre in February,' said Willomitzer. 'You've got January, February, March to race. You can't do a whole lot before (the Quest), because you're trying to rest up your dogs. After the Quest you can't do a whole lot, because you want them to recover.

'If you commit yourself to the Quest, that's pretty much what you've got to do.'

The real money-maker can be in mid-distance races, said Willomitzer.

'If you go to a race every weekend of January and February, it's much larger (purse) than what the Quest has to offer in prize money. You pick up $4,000 here and $4,000 there. You do that two, three times and you're starting to pay for these trips,' he said.

Veteran musher Sebastian Schnuelle agreed the purse needs to be enriched, adding he is seriously considering just running Alaska's Iditarod in the future because it provides a better purse.

The first 30 teams finishing the Iditarod share $794,800 US in prize money. Also, any musher completing the race in position 31 and beyond receives $1,049 US.

Schnuelle will be running this year's Iditarod, along with 2005 and 2006 Quest champion Lance Mackey, Hugh Neff, and three-time Quest champion Hans Gatt, who has also stated his intention to focus solely on the Alaskan race for the next several years.

Former Quest champions Aliy Zirkle, Jeff King, Sonny Linder and Tim Osmar are also running this year's Anchorage-to-Nome race, which began Saturday.

With the last several years attracting fewer mushers, the Quest needs to seriously consider increasing the money, added Willomitzer.

This year, only 22 teams were at the starting line and only 11 finished the race. In 2005, 21 teams started the race and 12 completed the Quest.

'The reason for most people to drop out is not the money, but in the end the reason for having only 23 starters is only having a small purse,' said Willomitzer.

'If you had a larger purse, you'd get 50 people to sign up. Then if 10 drop out, so be it, you still have 40 to run.'

'But if you only have 30 signing up and seven, eight people encounter problems from bad training conditions to not having money you're down to 22, 23 people just like that.'

Streeter agreed. 'A larger purse means more mushers.'

He added the Quest will continue to strive to get the purse to reach the $150,000 US mark for the 2007 race.

'We have confidence we are on the right track to increase the purse,' he said.