The total prize money for the 2015 Iditarod Sled Dog Race will be the largest in the 48-year history of the event, with the first-place prize money exceeding the 2014 amount by nearly $20,000.
The Iditarod Trail Committee, during a press conference Tuesday afternoon in the Millenium Alaskan Hotel in Anchorage, announced that the champions purse has been increased to $70,000. The first musher in the 2015 Iditarod to reach the finish line on Front Street in Nome will receive $19,600 more than 2014 winner Dallas Seavey won in the 2014 event. Seavey earned $50,400 for his second victory in three years.
The total prize package in 2015 will be $725,100, which is $50,000 greater than last year’s total payout of $675,100.
The committee also announced substantial raises for prize money for the runner-up through fifth-place mushers in 2015.
The 2015 runner-up earns $58,600, up from $47,600 in 2014. Two Rivers musher Aliy Zirkle was runner-up in the last three Iditarods.
The third-place money in 2015 was raised to $53,900; $48,400 goes to fourth-place musher; fifth place earns $44,300.
Seventy-nine mushers are entered in the 2015 Iditarod, including the following mushers with Kenai Peninsula ties: Dallas Seavey, 2014 champion; Kristy and Anna Berington of Kasilof; Monica Zappa and Paul Gebhardt of Kasilof; Mitch Seavey, Travis Beals and Sarah Stokey of Seward.
