Yukon Quest kicks off today in Whitehorse

#sleddogracing Clipped from adn.com

MUSHING: Iditarod veteran buser makes his debut in the 1,000-mile trek.
Anchorage Daily News

Only one past champion is entered in this year's Yukon Quest, but the field of 29 mushers that today will begin the 1,000-mile trek across the historic gold rush trail is loaded with intrigue.

Can Martin Buser, a four-time Iditarod champ but a Quest rookie, join the exclusive club open only to dog drivers who have won both the Quest and the Iditarod

Can Jason Mackey live up to the family name and find some fame of his own on the trail between Whitehorse and Fairbanks

Is three-time champion Hans Gatt in the race to win -- or to coach Newton Marshall, the first Jamaican to enter either of mushing's premier distance races

The 26th annual running of the race begins today in downtown Whitehorse. Mark Sleightholme, a British musher running his first Quest, will be the first musher to hit the trail.

Missing from the starting line will be Lance Mackey of Fairbanks, winner of the last four Yukon Quests and the undisputed king of mushing based on his back-to-back Idita-Quest double victories. He opted out of the Quest this year and will only race the Iditarod.

That leaves the door open for Buser, Gatt, Jason Mackey and a handful of others that could challenge for the victory -- a group that includes Jon Little of Kasilof, who is running his second Quest, and William Kleedehn of Whitehorse, a two-time runner-up and perennial top-5 Quest finisher.

Gatt, of Whitehorse, won the Quest three times before Mackey's dominance began and finished second in 2006 and 2007. He's been working with Marshall the last two years and is providing the young Jamaican with both a dog team and a race schedule for the Quest.

Buser, of Big Lake, is a prerace favorite despite his rookie status -- he's a veteran of more than 20 Iditarods and owns a racing resume that is one of the best in the sport.

A win by Buser would make him the fifth musher in history to win both the Iditarod and the Quest. Rick Mackey, Joe Runyan and Jeff King have all pulled off the distance double, but only Lance Mackey has won both races in the same year, something he did in 2007 and again last year.

Jason Mackey is another Quest rookie, though at age 37 he's been around the sport for years. He's part of a three-generation mushing family that also includes dad Dick, a former Iditarod champ, and half-brother Rick, a former Iditarod and Quest champ and, of course, brother Lance.

"I'm here to uphold the Mackey name," Mackey told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner on Wednesday in Whitehorse. "I'm here to win."

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