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NINE IS THE NUMBER – Brent Sass, the Yukon Quest’s reigning champion, draws bib #9 Thursday evening at the start and draw banquet. Yukon Quest photo by JULIEN SCHRODER

Yukon Quest start order set after bib draw

She was the last to be born, but the youngest musher in the 2016 Yukon Quest will start first after drawing bib No. 1 at the pre-race banquet on Thursday evening.

By Freelancer on February 5, 2016

FAIRBANKS — She was the last to be born, but the youngest musher in the 2016 Yukon Quest will start first after drawing bib No. 1 at the pre-race banquet on Thursday evening.

“I’m good with it,” said Michigan musher Laura Neese, 19. “Yeah, I’m ready to go.”

Neese, a Quest rookie, will lead 23 sled dog teams from the start on the Chena River in downtown Fairbanks, beginning at 11 a.m. Saturday.

She does not plan to stay in front for long in the 1,600-km race from Fairbanks to Whitehorse, though. And if there is any downside to starting first, she said, it is having more teams passing hers and waking the dogs when they need to rest farther down the trail.

“(I’m) going to take it nice and easy. Nice and slow, ease the dogs into it,” she said. “We’re not here to race from the start.”

The field of mushers includes three former champions — Hugh Neff, Allen Moore and Brent Sass — who join 11 other veterans and nine rookies.

All of them took turns drawing numbers Thursday night from a worn, white bunny boot on stage at the Westmark Hotel, each taking a chance to thank family members, handlers, sponsors and their dogs.

Sass, the defending champ, became choked up for a moment mentioning the January death of his main lead dog, Basin, who earned a Golden Harness award in the 2015 race. Sass has dedicated the 2016 race to the prized, champion sled dog.

“I lost a really, really special one this year,” Sass told the crowd of about 400. “He led us to victory last year, and he’s going to be with us all the way this year.”

Sass, a fan favourite, will certainly be competing with Moore and Neff. But many race watchers also have their eyes on the strong team of Two Rivers musher Matt Hall, originally from Eagle, one of the race checkpoints.

Hall’s team has won three of the four races he has entered this year, including the hotly contested Copper Basin 300.

Hall placed third his rookie year in 2014, earning Rookie of the Year honors, but scratched in 2015 when the race, with its alternating start location, ran from Whitehorse to Fairbanks.

“I’m trying to recap what I did in 2014, when the race went the same direction as it is this year, and just kind of replaying that run in my head,” Hall said at the banquet.

“Kind of seeing what we’re going to do differently this year…. It’s basically the same team, just trained a little differently, and more experience myself, a couple more years of racing.”

Hall said his mother told him a good-sized group would be in Eagle to cheer him on, just like in 2014.

“Half the town was there,” he said. “But that’s only like, 40 people!”

The mushers’ goals can vary, and for some veterans with less competition in mind, as well as many of the rookies, the mission is to make it all the way to the finish line. That included Gaetan Pierrard of Mendenhall, west of Whitehorse.

Pierrard has been a dog handler on the Quest and managed the Braeburn checkpoint, but this year is his first attempt at the race.

“Finishing is an accomplishment, for sure,” Pierrard said.

“It looks like the trail will be fast. Maybe 11 days, 12 days, but whatever it takes to be there for the (finishers) banquet to celebrate and spend time with my friends over there.”

By Casey Grove
Fairbanks News-Miner

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