(4 Mar 2012) SHOTLIST
HEADLINE: Gruelling Alaskan dog race begins
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CAPTION: It was all laughs, smiles and barks during the ceremonial start of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Anchorage, Alaska on Saturday. (4 March 2012)
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VOICE-OVER: This video contains only natural sound. There is no voice-over narration.
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++MUTE++
1. Wide of dogs running down track for ceremonial start to the race
++WITH AUDIO++
2. Wide of dog racers and handlers walking with race dogs, snow falling
3. Wide of start line
4. Various of dogs
5. Mid of Iditarod champion Lance Mackey posing for picture with young fan
6. SOUNDBITE: (English) Lance Mackey, Iditarod champion musher:
"I always feel it's my time, my time has maybe came and went like some, but I feel that I still have the team that's capable. I know I'm confident and I've got the ability. The outcome remains to be seen."
7. Wide of people preparing a dog sled
8. Mid of Mackey posing for picture with fan
9. Close-up of dog in cage
10. Mid of dogs
11. Wide of handlers with dogs
STORYLINE:
It was all laughs, smiles and barks during the ceremonial start of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Anchorage, Alaska on Saturday.
The fan-fest annually precedes the real start of the race, scheduled for Sunday 50 miles (80 kilometres) north of Anchorage in Willow.
"I think it's great," said Susan Chan of Little Rock, Ark.
"Of course, the dogs are the main attraction, but really the mushers, of course, they're in charge of the whole thing," she added.
For the ceremonial start, streets are closed in downtown Anchorage to allow fans to watch the mushers, as the competitive sled dog sled drivers are known, prepare their dog teams.
There is a staggered start, with a musher and a person riding in his or her sled who won an auction for the ride.
Dogs lead the musher and rider on a leisurely 11-mile jaunt through the city.
Fans not lining the streets downtown also pick out their favourite viewing spots along the city's sled dog trail system.
The start of the Iditarod coincides with the end of Anchorage's nine-day winter festival, the "Fur Rendezvous."
Sixty-six mushers and their sled dog teams will attempt the 1,000-mile (1,600 kilometre) trek across Alaska, which ends is in the old gold rush town of Nome, on Alaska's western coast.
Organisers earlier this year cut out the Happy River Steps, a notoriously steep and dangerous route between the Finger Lake and Rainy Pass checkpoints.
But on Saturday, they said the alternate route, a winter road created by a mineral exploration company, was no longer an option because of snow.
Organisers said the original trail through the Steps would be used.
The Iditarod field this year includes mushers from Alaska, four other US states and three other countries.
The contenders include defending champion John Baker, 49, who won last year's race in record time, ending Lance Mackey's four-year string of consecutive victories.
Baker said he did not feel any pressure as the defending champion.
But Mackey is confident.
"I feel that I still have the team that's capable. I know I'm confident and I've got the ability. The outcome remains to be seen," he said.
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