BETHEL, Alaska — No one knows better than Matthew Failor that Pete Kaiser is hard to beat on his home track.
But the Mansfield native pushed the eight-time champ to the finish this weekend in the 45th annual Kuskokwim 300 sled-dog that begins and ends in Kaiser’s home town of Bethel.
It’s the third straight runner-up finish to Kaiser in the race for Failor, who won the race in 2019.
At the finish line on Sunday, after Failor handed out treats to his dogs, an interviewer told Failor that Kaiser knows how to win the “Kusko,” billed as the premier middle distance sled dog race in the world.
Failor, smiling in sub-zero temperatures, responded, “I just know how to get second place.”
The Mansfield St. Peter’s graduate earned $18,500 for his runner-up finish, compared to $28,500 for Kaiser.
“Pete is the best ever for the Kusko,” he said. “All the credit to Pete. He deserves another championship because he is the best.
“Top to bottom, his kennel is designed for this race,” Failor said.
The race began Friday night at 8 p.m.
Failor and his team finished 37 hours, 58 minutes later, around 41 minutes behind the 32-year-old Best, the 2019 Iditarod champion.
The race, which began with 23 teams, includes mandatory stops along the way.
Failor said he felt it was a good run for his Alaskan Husky Adventures team on the hard-packed and icy surface.
“I feel like I managed their speed pretty well,” he said. “I might have gone a touch too fast into (the turnaround point) of Aniak. But (the dogs) were comfortable. They liked moving at that speed.”
The Willow musher said that he managed his dogs’ speed well, but in the second half he faced the one-two punch of a challenging section of trail and Kaiser’s team.
“The Whitefish Lake (section) was not to this team’s (liking) … they did it fine, but the grass and the tussocks, they don’t really care for that kind of stuff. It slowed us down a bit,” Failor said. “And that’s when Pete slowly moved away from us.”
“He’s the best ever for the Kusko, top to bottom designed for this race,” Failor said of Kaiser. “He and his family put 100% of their time into this if they’re not hanging with his kids or his business. His kennel is groomed to win this race.”
The race was also conducted in bitter cold conditions. Failor, who lives in Willow, Alaska, almost 400 miles from Bethel, said it was 35 below zero on Sunday morning.
“The dogs don’t mind it. It’s just a matter of discomfort for my toes,” he said with a laugh.
The race comes seven months after the birth of Failor’s son and 10 months after he had a shoulder replaced following his best-ever 8th-place finish in the 2023 Iditarod race, a 1,000-mile event.
“It feels good. It’s fine. It’s better than bone on bone,” he said.
Big “Kusko” finishes are the norm for Failor, who became engaged to Liz at the end of the race in 2020 after a second-place finish.
The latest race comes just more than a month before the 2024 Iditarod. Failor is one of 43 mushers signed up to compete.
Failor raced his first Iditarod in 2012 and has earned two “Most Improved” and “Most Inspirational” musher in the race, a winding journey that begins in Anchorage and finishes in Nome.