At least one Yukon Quest sled dog race record will likely be shattered at the hands of Hans Gatt.

The Atlin, B.C. musher who leads the 21st Yukon Quest sled dog race is on pace to break the record for the fastest-ever run from Fairbanks to Whitehorse.

The current record is held by retired musher Lavon Barve of Alaska.

When Barve, the only rookie to win the Quest, conquered the race in 1994, he finished in a time of 10 days, 22 hours and 44 minutes.

For Gatt to break that record, he would have to arrive in Whitehorse before 11:44 tomorrow morning.

Gatt arrived at the final checkpoint of Braeburn at 10:42 this morning. Since mushers must take an eight-hour rest in Braeburn, the earliest Gatt can leave is at 6:42 this evening.

In 2002, en route to his first Quest championship, Gatt ran the 175 km from Braeburn to Whitehorse in 12 hours and 14 minutes.

If his trip to Whitehorse takes that long this year, Gatt will check into the city at 6:56 tomorrow morning, giving him a final time of 10 hours, 17 hours and 56 minutes and obliterating Barve's record.

On top of that, Gatt may be able to take run at the overall Quest record, which belongs to Whitehorse's Frank Turner.

Turner's record, set when he won the Quest in 1995, is 10 days, 16 hours and 20 minutes.

For Gatt to eclipse the nine-year-old mark, he would have to arrive in Whitehorse before 5:19 a.m. tomorrow morning.

To do that, Gatt would need to make the 175-km trip from Braeburn in a virtually unheard of time of 10 hours and 27 minutes or less.

Gatt told reporters in Braeburn this morning he had been trying to break Turner's record for the fastest Quest. However, he will not be able to scoop the nine-year-old record out of Turner's grasp, the Atlin musher admitted.

To pull off the record-breaking feat, Gatt said he would have had to have arrived in Braeburn by 9 a.m.

Traditionally, the Fairbanks-to-Whitehorse route has taken longer than the other way around, which was the route Turner took to break the record.

The final time for Gatt is based on the length of time between when the last musher in Fairbanks left to when he hits the finish line in Whitehorse. This is how the Quest has calculated its finishing times in past years.

When mushers leave the start line, they exit every two minutes. That stagger is made up in Dawson City, when they leave that checkpoint after their mandatory 36-hour rest. The amount of time a musher left ahead of the final competitor is tacked onto the 36 hours.

The gap between mushers does not take into account the late departure of Swiss musher Emil Inauen from the start, as he was considered to have left at his appointed time.

The last musher this year left exactly 60 minutes after the start began at noon Yukon time on Feb. 14.