After saying he would be focusing his energies on the Iditarod over the coming years, three-time Yukon Quest champion Hans Gatt has once again signed up to run the 1,600-kilometre race.

Gatt won the Whitehorse-to-Fairbanks race in 2002, 2003 and 2004 before taking a year off to focus on the Iditarod in 2005.

He returned to the Quest this year, placing second with a time of 10 days, eight hours and 59 minutes.

Running dogs since 1988, Gatt has previously said winning the Iditarod is one of his last goals in mushing and that he would be phasing out his participation in the Quest over the coming years with no plans to run in 2007.

'Really, I haven't done the Iditarod as well as I would like to do,' he previously told the Star. 'Before I quit, I'd like to have a decent placing on the Iditarod.'

Gatt has run the Anchorage-to-Nome race seven times, with his best placing in 2000, when he finished 12th.

He finished in position 36 this year and is again signed up for the 2007 race.

'I was dominating the other races and I had it pretty easy. I didn't really have to race against anybody,' Gatt previously said of his past runs in the Quest.

But this year's race was different when he was trounced by two-time champion Lance Mackey, who will be back on the 2007 trail.

Gatt is now saying he has signed up for the Quest again, because it is his 'favourite race.'

'I love the dogs, the lifestyle and the competition,' he said in a statement. 'I enjoy most to be out on the trail, all alone with my dog team.'

However, Gatt is still listing his goal for the rest as to win the race.

Gatt is the 25th musher to sign up for the 2007 Quest. He joins a lineup that now includes all top nine finishers from this year's race: Mackey, Gatt, William Kleedehn, David Dalton, Gerry Willomitzer, Sebastian Schnuelle, Kelley Griffin, Michelle Phillips and Richie Beattie.

Only 11 mushers of the 22 at the starting line completed this year's race in the brutal conditions that included blizzard-like and whiteout situations on the Alaska side, an air rescue of five mushers off of Eagle Summit and a race reroute that saw the finish line move to Dawson City.

Both the start number and the finish number were record lows for the race, which is hoping to cash in on some 'Quest fever' for 2007 in conjunction with excitement about the 2007 Canada Winter Games also occurring in February.

Other notables signed up for the 2007 race include: Hugh Neff, who also claimed he would not be running again after he said he was forced to withdraw at the Dawson City layover this year; and, the return of race legend Frank Turner who retired in 2005 after running every Quest until that point.

'It's a great slate,' Robin Round, the race's president, said Tuesday. 'It raises the bar on the running of the race.'

It's going to make 2007 a much more competitive and exciting experience for mushers and Quest-watchers, she said.

Other veterans signed up for 2007 include: Tom Benson, who placed 25th in 2002; Peter Ledwidge, a veteran who placed fourth in the 2004 Quest; and Catherine Pinard, who placed 13th in 2004 and 12th in 2003.

The rookies rounding out the lineup are: Benedikt Beisch, Tom Benson, Aaron Burmeister, Russ Bybee (who competed this year, but scratched at Mile 101), Devan Currier, Paul Ellering, Michael 'Shane' Goosen, J.T. Hessert, Russian competitor Fedor Konyukhov, Bob McAlpin, Greg Parvin and this year's Quest 300 champion Brent Sass.

'We're way back up,' said Round of the number of mushers signing up for 2007.

She credited the change to the $75,000 US increase in prize money in the race's purse.

There is now $200,000 US available, with the winner of the race taking home $40,000. The amount is $10,000 more than the previous $30,000-award for first place.

Second place will receive $30,000, up from $24,000, while the third finisher will take home $22,000 rather than the previous award of $18,000.

The change is one of several for 2007, which will also see a new race manager, new head veterinarian, the change of the final eight-hour layover to Chena Hot Springs from Angel Creek and improvements to the trail.

'It's an effort to re-evaluate, revitalize and make (the race) better,' said Round.

The race has been working hard to collect facts and advice from mushers and others involved and has set clear goals and priorities for 2007, she said.

Among them are trail quality, musher education and better communication.