Yukon Quest sled dog race starts in Fairbanks

The Yukon Quest International Sled Dog race starts Saturday morning in Fairbanks, Alaska.

The mushers are beginning what is normally a 1,600kilometre race to Whitehorse, but the course is more than 100kilometres shorter than normal because of bad trail conditions.

Marie Belanger, Yukon Quest Canadian Executive Director,says the 18 mushers in this year's race are raring to go.

"They love meeting the public, but they can't wait to get on the runners and get out there," she said.

The front runners include last year's champion, Allen Moore and recent winnerHugh Neff.ButBelangersays a Whitehorse-area musher, who will be first out of the chute, may be a long shot.

"At the banquet, Normand Casavant drew bib number 1," she said.

"So he kind of made a nice insinuation that two years ago he got bib number 10 and placed 10th, and then last year he got bibnumber 7 and placed seventh. So getting bib number 1, he's going to aim for the top spot."

Casavant was the first Canadian musher across the finish line in last year's race.

The shortened coursecould cut almost a whole day off the winning time, putting the winner across the finish linejust north of Whitehorsein an estimated eight days.

The race begins Saturday at 11 a.m. Alaska time.