(Anchorage Daily News story, May 19, 2007)

By CRAIG MEDRED
Anchorage Daily News

Healy musher Ramy Brooks -- heir to one of the greatest family sled-dog traditions in Alaska -- has been banned from the 2008 and 2009 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race by unanimous vote of the race's board of directors.

As punishment for beating his dogs during this year's 1,100-mile race from Anchorage to Nome, Brooks will also be placed on probation for three years -- if he returns to the Iditarod in 2010.