If all goes as planned, nearly 30 mushers will take off from the start line of the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race in just over a month, with 2013 and 2014 champion Allen Moore attempting to defend his title.

Friday was the final deadline for late entries into the annual 1,600-kilometre race between Whitehorse and Fairbanks, Alaska.

A total of 27 entries were submitted by the deadline, including the current champion.

Of those, seven are Canadian, including veterans Rob Cooke (who identifies his nationality as UK and Canadian), Normand Casavant, Brian Wilmshurst and Ed Hopkins along with rookies Jason Campeau, Tamra Reynolds and Damon Alexander Tedford.

Nearly all other mushers signed up are from the U.S., with the exception of four.

German musher Olaf Thurau, French musher Nicolas Vanier and Norwegian musher Magnus Feren Kaltenborn are all rookies while Swedish musher Torsten Kohnert and another Norwegian – Joar Leifseth Ulsom – are Quest veterans.

Finally, from the U.S. are Moore and fellow race veterans Mike Ellis, Brent Sass, Cody Strathe, Mat Hall, former Quest and Iditarod champion Lance Mackey, Dave Dalton, 1989 Quest champion Jeff King, 2012 Quest champion Hugh Neff and Scott Smith.

Mackey won the Quest each year between 2005 and 2008, also taking the Iditarod title from 2007 to 2010, making him the first musher to win both major races in the same year the first time he did it in 2007.

Rounding out the 2015 Quest field are rookies (all from the U.S.) Tony Angelo, Ryne Olson, Kristin Knight Pace, Rolland Trowbridge and Ray Redington Jr.

The race alternates its start and finish lines each year, with this year’s edition beginning at 11 a.m. on Feb. 7 in Whitehorse and ending in Fairbanks.