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Photo by Sam Harrel

With reliable Hobo and Larry still trotting along and stud Zorro back for one last hurrah, Lance Mackey remains the top dog — but he’s not looking past the competition for the 25th Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race.

Mackey, who set a record time last year upon winning his third straight Quest and followed that feat by claiming the Iditarod the next month, is now seeking to become the first person to win the Quest four times.

“In all reality, there’s 20 others mushers out here that would probably take my spot real easy if I falter in any little way,” said Mackey, whose 14 dogs include 10 that were part of the unprecedented “Iditaquest” double. “So I have to be on my toes.”

That said, Mackey is the overwhelming favorite to win $35,000 in a diluted field that recently saw contenders Aaron Burmeister of Nenana and 1984 champion Sonny Lindner of Two Rivers withdraw.

Also, three members of last year’s top five — the European-born Canadians Hans Gatt (the only triple winner besides Mackey), Gerry Willomitzer and William Kleedehn — all are running the Iditarod this year instead.

But Ken Anderson, Mackey’s next-door neighbor in Fox, is giving the Quest a shot for the first time, Dan Kaduce of Chatanika has rebounded from a devastating fire in 2005, several top-ten mushers from 2007 return and a breakthrough musher seems to emerge every year.

Mackey, though, is not short on confidence, and for good reason: He says this year’s durable bunch of huskies are the strongest — though not necessarily the fastest — he’s ever driven.

“They’re going to have to have everything go right,” Mackey said Thursday of what it would take to dethrone him. “In all honesty, if I have a good, smooth run, they’re going to have their hands full.”

Good, smooth runs, though, could come at a premium. That’s because tough trail conditions and frigid weather may make the going miserable for mushers, dogs and sleds.

Temperatures are only expected to abate moderately from the current 40 below snap while nasty jumble ice awaits on the Yukon River. However, the elimination of a rough Rosebud Summit (teams will instead be trucked from Chena Hot Springs to Mile 101) will offer some reprieve.

Kaduce, who took sixth in 2004 but scratched a year later, is not looking forward to the cold, saying that’s his team’s weakness.

“I’m going to have to really watch things the first couple days when they’re moving fast and it’s cold out to make sure that I don’t frostbite any of them,” Kaduce said.

Mackey — and many others — list Kaduce as a contender, but the 38-year-old is just happy to be in the mix after the Boundary Fire wiped out much of what he and partner Jodi Bailey own.

“I’ve just been rebounding with my dog team, taking a little time off to get life and everything together,” Kaduce said. “Basically everything on our property except for the cabin we live in (burned).”

Kaduce has a small kennel of 19 dogs and has had to back off on training volume the last month because of some injuries. Still, his team’s performance in mid-distance races bodes well for the Quest.

“Even though my team hasn’t done a thousand miles, people are expecting them to run the way they have been in shorter races,” he said.

Anderson, a career-best seventh at the 2007 Iditarod, is leery of taking off at too fast a pace or hammering at the end.

His goal: “It’s to do as well as I can within a certain amount of reason,” Anderson said. “I don’t want to get into a situation where I have to really, really push the dogs real hard. ... I’m keeping Iditarod in the back of my mind, for sure.”

Mackey proved last year that excelling in the Quest and Iditarod back-to-back is possible, Anderson noted, so “I can’t really lean on that as a crutch for not racing hard in this race.”

And who might be this year’s wild card? Last year Michelle Phillips of Tagish, Yukon, launched up to sixth place, and she’s back for another run, with the strongest pedigree among the six women.

But Brent Sass, 27, of Fairbanks hopes it’s his turn this year, and he’s shooting for the top five.

Sass, a former skier at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, says he’s in the best shape of his life, and so are his dogs, 10 of which return from his 15th place finish last year. Sass’ training has reached a new level since he quit a job at Chena Hot Springs and spent this winter in Eureka off the Elliott Highway.

The race features many other compelling storylines, primary among them the historical aspect.

Bill Cotter, 61, of Nenana said he returned for the first time since winning the 1987 Quest in large part to participate in the 25th running. He joins Quest patriarch Frank Turner, 60, of Whitehorse, as the only mushers this year who also wore a bib for the inaugural race.

“The 25th is kind of a milestone race, so it feels different,” said Turner, who has started every race except the 2006 edition.

Dave Dalton of Healy, making his 18th start, is an old-timer with the potential to contend.

Among the 10 rookies are Julie Estey, the Quest’s former executive director, who will be running a team that includes eight of Anderson’s dogs; Phil Joy of Fairbanks, who hopes to overcome Eagle Summit, from where he was airlifted to safety along with five other mushers in 2006; and Outside mushers Donald Smidt and Mike Ellis, who each are entering teams of purebred Siberian huskies.

Correction

Becca Moore, featured in Friday’s start banquet story, was born in Germany but is an American who lives in Willow.