Up, Up, and Away – Day 3, by Jake Robinson
Anny Malo powering home at the 17 mile point of the race. More photos below.
Fast and steady wins the race, and that appears to be what Anny Malo is doing. While dog mushing is far more of an art than a science, if anyone has distilled winning the Pedigree Stage Stop Race into a formula, it’s Team Malo/Rivest. The warm weather and low snow didn’t prove to be an impediment to this crew as they cruised up the hills and into a win for today’s heat.
Splits indicate that Coste had put on significant time to the 6-mile mark, but that the lead was slowly whittled away and Malo handily outran him coming home. When Coste first burst onto the North American racing scene in 2024, his extreme style of racing caught everyone by surprise and he was able to make significant margins in the early stages and incrementally add to them throughout the race. But for every action, there is an equal, opposite reaction and Malo has learned how to effectively respond to the ‘Coste Comet’. As we near the halfway point of the race and without a single lap victory so far, Coste’s window to make a race winning move is starting to close. Although todays finish is the closest he has been to a yellow bib, so we may see a rabbit pulled out of the hat yet.
Team Magnusson is holding strong and putting together a consistent race. While splits indicate that this 20 year veteran of Pedigree Stage Stop dropped off in pace for the last few miles coming home, the smooth cruise for the first 3/4 of the Big Piney lap put him out of reach of the next group of teams, comfortably adding to his margin for a podium finish. It appears that if Roy, Crittenden, or Beaber want to make time on this seasoned racer, they are going to have to take it from him, as he won’t be giving it up easily.
Speaking of the dynamic trio, Stephane Roy is making a strong case for a top 5 finish. Running more conservatively to the loop, he was 3rd fastest coming home, indicating that he’s effectively managing his team and choosing how and when to let air out of the balloon. Ryan ‘The Builder’ Beaber is making impressive gains within the field and is proving to be a contender in this years race. Ryan, Sarah, and family have been making steady improvements over the years and are putting their hard earned knowledge and effort to great use. Crittenden seemed to struggle to find a rhythm today and will be looking for dials to turn to get this team tuned in and rolling. Alix is an extremely savvy stage stop racer and this program is well known for making big gains in later stages, including a 2025 stage 7 win that catapulted her into 3rd overall at the closing bell.
One team from lower in the pack that has made massive year-over-year improvement is Sean Hildreth. After finishing his rookie run last year, Sean and the Oregon Trail of Dreams kennel that he races out of went back to the drawing board and made some tweaks to their training regiment that are showing impressive results this year! Go Sean!
As race fans eagerly await the start of the 2nd lap being run at Big Piney, we have a few movements in the pack to keep an eye on. Teams 4-6 are in some tight racing and all are quality programs with experienced drivers, this is probably where we’ll see the most activity in the next couple of stages, with this group also trying to make a bid for a podium finish. Liam ‘Young Gun’ Conner and Tristan Rivest are also looking to break into this pack. While it is starting to look like Malo’s race to lose, Coste still isn’t out of this and is worth keeping a close eye on. The other factor is that after today, the trails become shorter for the 3 remaining stages, meaning there is less opportunity for gains and that every mile matters. Stay tuned!
