The Fairbanks musher regained the race lead when he was the first musher late Thursday to leave the halfway point at Cripple. He took off nearly two-and-a-half hours ahead of Hans Gatt of Whitehorse, Yukon, on the 112-mile leg to Ruby.

Mackey only stayed 10 minutes in Cripple before leading 14 dogs back on the trail at 9:05 p.m.

By 1 a.m., four other mushers were on the trail with him. All had completed their mandatory 24-hour layovers.

Gatt left at 11:25 p.m., followed by Jeff King of Denali Park at 12:26 a.m. Rick Swenson, the 55-year-old five-time champion, took off at 12:57 a.m. And Norwegian Kjetil Backen was on the trail at 1 a.m.

Between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. another five mushers followed -- Aaron Burmeister, 2004 champ Mitch Seavey, Kotzebue's John Baker, 67-year-old Jim Lanier of Chugiak and Sebastian Schnuelle of Whitehorse.

Ahead was the longest slog of the race, a 112-mile push through hilly terrain to the first checkpoint on the Yukon River.

The first musher into Ruby is feted by the community with a bounty of food — a seven-course meal — $5,000 in $1 bills.

The long rest in Takotna may have revived Mackey's team. Mackey, who last year became the first to record back-to-back wins in the 1,100-mile Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race and the Iditarod, left Takotna at 5 a.m. for the 25-mile stretch to Ophir. His team arrived there at 7:16, bounding out four minutes later for the 59-mile run to Cripple.

Karen Ramstead of Perryvale, Alberta, also took her 24-hour rest on Wednesday with all 16 of her Siberian huskies.

The 42-year-old veteran musher scratched in last year's race because she was devastated after a female leader on her team, Snickers, died of a bleeding ulcer.

Ramstead is dedicating this race to Snickers and is carrying the dog's ashes to Nome. She plans to scatter the ashes at Cape Nome overlooking the old gold rush town — a place where she always stops to pet and privately thank her team.

"I've always said that's my favorite spot," Ramstead said as her team slept on straw scattered over the snow. "You know you're going to finish, but you're still in the adventure."

Rookie musher Kim Franklin of Britain was withdrawn from the race Thursday after two dogs became separated from her team. Franklin reported that one of her dogs chewed through the gangline and race officials said Franklin couldn't find the dogs and continued to Rohn. It's against Iditarod rules to arrive at a checkpoint without the same number of dogs.

Officials said the two dogs were found and released to their handler in Anchorage.

Six mushers have scratched so far.

A record field of 89 mushers remains on the trail.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.