The field of 31 mushers in the 1,000 mile race has become 30. Last year’s Yukon Quest third-place finisher, Laura Neese, 22, has been forced to drop out of the 2019 1,000 mile race.

The kennel Neese works for posted an update to their Facebook on Sunday. Nature’s Kennel’s post read:

“We are saddened and very disappointed to announce that Laura Neese will not be running her team of NK (Nature’s Kennel) dogs in the 2019 Yukon Quest. Laura and her dogs are fine, but unfortunately, her drop bag supplies are not,” said the post.

“Everything that she needed for the 1,000 mile race arrived in the Yukon six days early, in plenty of time before the drop bags were due to be distributed to the checkpoints by the race organization.

“Upon their arrival in Whitehorse they were accidentally left in a heated warehouse instead of being stored outside and her dog food thawed, spoiled, and leaked over all the rest of the critical supplies needed for the race. When the race organization went to pick up the drop bags and found them in this condition, there was not enough time to get all new supplies purchased, received, packaged, and shipped to the Yukon and out to the checkpoints.”

Neese, who resides in McMillan, Mich., first did the Quest in 2016, while she was still a teenager, coming in 13th. In 2017 she had to scratch, before coming in third in 2018.