Brief by Central Staff
Burro Racing – June 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
Summer may arrive one of these days (there’s certainly been enough wind to bring in a new season), and with it comes pack-burro racing – the only professional sport indigenous to Central Colorado.
The 2005 schedule includes the three Triple Crown races, as well as a Cripple Creek race and tentatively a race near where the Colorado Central Railroad once operated.
Arrangements hadn’t been solidified at press time, but the plan is for a five-to-eight mile race from Georgetown to Silver Plume and back on May 28. That’s historic pack-burro country, so even if it has been invaded by an interstate highway, it’s an apt locale.
Cripple Creek celebrates Donkey Derby Days on June 25 and 26, and what’s a donkey derby without a pack-burro race. Plans call for a three-mile amateur race that starts and ends in Cripple Creek, and a 10-mile pro race from Victor to Cripple Creek.
On July 31, the long course of the traditional World Championship Race will extend for 29 miles from downtown Fairplay to the apex of Mosquito Pass at 13,188 feet above sea level, and back to the starting place in front of the Hand Hotel on Front Street. The 15-mile short course will start and end in the same place, but will not involve climbing the highest pass in North America.
A week later, on Aug. 7, Leadville will host the International Championship Pack Burro Race. The men’s course is 22 miles through the mining district to the top of Mosquito Pass and back; women will run 15 miles on a loop around Bald Mountain. Both will return to town through California Gulch, site of the gold strike that brought people to the top of the Arkansas River 145 years ago.
The Triple Crown series concludes with the Gold Rush Days race in Buena Vista on Aug. 14. It involves 12 miles with fine views, some along the old grade of the Colorado Midland Railroad.
A competitor can win the Triple Crown by winning the Fairplay, Leadville, and Buena Vista races with the same burro. The first pack-burro race ran from Fairplay to Leadville in 1949. The towns alternated start and finish for several years, but realized that the crowd (and source of income for local businesses) was always at the finish line, so began running their own races.
If you’re a runner who’d like to compete, but don’t have a burro (or a pack-saddle with pick, shovel, and gold pan), don’t worry – with some notice, several Western Pack Burro Association members have donkeys to spare. For more information, check the website at www.packburroracing.com.
