DAWSON CITY Yukon Quest race marshall Mike McCowan has withdrawn Alaskan musher J.T. Hessert from the race.

'I withdrew him because basically I had concerns about his preparation and how this was going to affect him here and also further down the trail,' McCowan told reporters this morning.

Hessert was told soon after his 5:03 arrival into Dawson this morning that he would not be allowed to continue on.

The 23-year-old musher has been running the Quest without a handler. He'd been relying on the good graces of two women handling for other rookie teams to clean up after him at checkpoints and collect his dropped dogs.

'It's not their responsibility whatsoever to take on that kind of responsibility,' said McCowan. 'The handler from the other team already had a job to do with their driver and their team.'

The race's rules permit the marshall to withdraw a team from the race for the good of the dogs, the musher or the event.

McCowan said the decision was made for the good of the Yukon Quest, and is not a question of any wrongdoing on Hessert's part.

'I basically withdrew him for the event so there is no question about dog care,' he said.

There are no requirements in the race's rules that a musher must have a handler on the trail.

'There are other things in the rules that aren't said either, but they're pretty much expected,' said McCowan, adding the rules committee should consider adding a clause to the rules.

This is McCowan's fourth year serving at the Quest's race marshall. He said it's the first time he has ever seen a musher attempt the 1,600-km trail without a handler.

'If you're going to enter a race like this, you have to put a little more planning and preparation into it,' he said. 'Getting someone to go along with your team and your truck is part of that.'

McCowan said he'd permitted Hessert to continue to the halfway checkpoint so he'd be able to be classified as a veteran should he decide to ever run the race again.

But with the teams beginning to head for Eagle, Alaska and the race officials moving on to the series of remote Alaskan checkpoints, McCowan said, he felt now was the time to tell Hessert he would not be allowed to continue forward under the Quest's banner.

'I'm just trying to alleviate anything that could cause problems further down the road.'

With no dog truck or supplies and the potential of Mike Jayne and Greg Parvin not being able to complete their rookie runs, Hessert may even be without the help of their handlers as the Quest moves on, said McCowan.

Hessert, however, said he plans to protest the decision.

'If we're saying the reason that I'm getting withdrawn from the race is not having a handler it's not even in the rules,' Hessert said. 'Even if I don't have a handler, I don't think I'm hurting the race at all.'

Hessert added his truck will be arriving in Dawson at approximately 8:00 tonight, driven by someone from Frank Turner's Muktuk Kennels, where it has been parked since the starting line last Saturday.

Hessert also said he'd hoped to find someone in Dawson who would be willing to drive the truck and handle for him on the Alaskan-side of the trail.

'People run the Iditarod without handlers,' he said. 'All it is here is cleaning up after the dogs and picking up dropped dogs.'

Hessert has only dropped two dogs so far.

But he has been living out of his dog truck for the last four years, and the dogs that aren't running in the race have been riding along with Parvin's handler.

'Everyone is helping me,' he had said earlier in the race. 'I feel special.'

Hessert said he didn't see not having a handler as a 'big deal'.

'I'm not the most organized person ever,' he said. 'I'm 23 years old. I'm not trying to get things together and make it to the race.

'The fact that I got to the dogs and the starting line and everything else; I feel accomplished that I got here to Dawson with a healthy 12 dogs. Minor things like not having a handler didn't seem that significant to me, I guess.'

The Iditarod finisher said he was treating the Quest as a training run for his young team.

'I was thinking I was having a happy time, a happy run in here,' he said.

Being withdrawn by race officials doesn't seem that 'sensible', he added.

'I'm conservatively running my dogs in the back of the pack. I'm just camping up the trail, giving the dogs experience and not pushing competitively.'

Hessert said he may still continue on the trail despite being withdrawn. His protest of the decision will not be reviewed until after the race.

His elimination takes the slate of teams down to 25. Yukoners Catherine Pinard and Kiara Adams scratched from the race in Pelly Crossing.