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Rachael Scdoris, the Bend, Ore., teen who waged a high-profile campaign to become the first blind musher to compete in the 1,100-mile race between Anchorage and Nome, missed a mandatory rookies meeting this weekend.

Though she has not formally bowed out, her father Jerry Scdoris said the decision not to run next March came down to money and time. Race officials said missing the meeting makes her ineligible to run in the 2004 race.

Scdoris, who is a veteran of several stage races in the Lower 48, needed time to get accustomed to the new guide method, her father said.

In addition, using a dog sled instead of a snowmachine also doubled the team's original budget, estimated between $40,000 and $50,000, he said.

A snowmobile manufacturer pulled its sponsorship. "That's about a $40,000 turnaround right there," he said.

Scdoris suffers from congenital achromatopsia, a hereditary condition that impairs her central vision and makes it hard for her to see the front of her team.

Scdoris waged a high-profile campaign this fall to get race officials to bend rules banning outside accommodations.

The debate attracted the national Women's Sports Foundation, two U.S. senators and even the attorney who represented disabled golfer Casey Martin in his successful U.S. Supreme Court bid to use a golf cart on the PGA tour who weighed in on her side.

At the same time, those in the mushing sport were split on the issue. Critics feared her condition could threaten the safety of she and her dogs and possibly other mushers.

Scdoris doesn't belong in the Iditarod, said race course record holder Martin Buser, a four-time champion.

"That girl isn't qualified," Buser said during a visit by rookie mushers to his kennel in Big Lake.

Gary McKellar, a 46-year-old rookie musher from Wasilla, had mixed feelings. "I'd like to see her run the race if she wants to," McKellar said.

Scdoris still plans to run 200- and 350-mile races in Montana, races she had to finish to qualify for the Iditarod, her father said. She will enter the 2005 Iditarod, he said. "Definitely," he said.