Jon Little used a long layover in Dawson City on Wednesday to hang out with his dogs and look forward to a full night of warm, restful sleep before returning to the trail in the Yukon Quest sled-dog race.

He tried not to spend the day thinking about the four ounces of gold that just eluded his grasp, or about the narrow lead he owns over the man who is poised to claim to that gold and who will be 16 minutes behind him on the trail when action resumes this morning.

Little, a Kasilof musher running the Quest for the second time, is the official leader in the 1,000-mile race from Whitehorse to Fairbanks -- even though William Kleedehn, a nine-time finisher and fan favorite, was the first to reach Dawson City on Tuesday night.

Kleedehn arrived at 9:15 p.m. Alaska time, two minutes ahead of Little. That put the Carcross, Yukon territory, musher in position to claim the four ounces of Klondike gold that goes to the first musher to reach the midway point of Dawson City, provided he or she completes the race.

A lead dog with a taste for snow cost Little the gold. Little was driving his 13-dog team up the Klondike River, about a mile from Dawson City, when one of his leaders stopped to eat some snow.

While Little was off his sled-runners to deal with the leader, Kleedehn quickly passed by, thinking, "I am glad that was not me that just got passed this close to the checkpoint," according to a report on the Yukon Quest Web site.

"It was disappointing," Little told former Quest musher Frank Turner, who is providing race reports for the Web site. "It definitely wasn't part of my plan to be the first into Dawson, but when I was this close I thought it might be nice to give the gold to my wife."

With the rich bonus slated to go to Kleedehn, Little turned his thoughts to his dogs and his race.

Little said he's following a longer run/shorter rest strategy that worked well for several mushers in last year's All Alaska Sweepstakes, according to the Quest Web site.

"I think there is something to that strategy but I am still working to dial it in," he said.

So far, so good. He said his dogs were eating well upon their arrival in Dawson City: "They don't look like they have just run 500 miles."

Little told Turner he was happy with his night-time arrival in Dawson City. All mushers are required to take a 36-hour layover in the historic gold-rush town, which is 451 away from the race's start line in Whitehorse and 540 miles away from the finish line in Fairbanks. By arriving shortly after 9 p.m., Little and Kleedehn both got two nights in Dawson -- Tuesday and Wednesday -- and a full day before they resume racing this morning.

"My plan here is to have two good nights sleep while my handlers tend to my dogs on a six-hour cycle," Little told Turner. "Then I will spend the entire middle day hanging out with them, resting, massaging, walking, feeding. We're going to have fun."

Little gets a 16-minute head start on Kleedehn because Dawson City is where race officials make time adjustments required by the staggered start in Whitehorse. Kleedehn started six spots -- 18 minutes -- ahead of Little. With the adjustment made for that disparity, Little is the race leader by a slim 16 minutes.

"I don't ever want to be 16 minutes ahead of William Kleedehn, in any situation," he said, fearing Kleedehn will have the advantage giving chase to Little's team.

Often a contender but never a winner in the Yukon Quest, Kleedehn is playing things cool, trying not to engage in talk about how close he is to the lead and a possible victory.

"It means nothing," Kleedehn said. "If I am at the last checkpoint with an hour lead and my dogs are barking to leave, then I might feel like I have a shot."

Plenty of fans, and probably even a few mushers, are rooting for Kleedehn, a Yukoner who competes with a prosthetic leg and calls his kennel "The Limp-A-Long Kennel."

He didn't do last year's Quest, but in seven races from 2001 through 2007, he has finished in the top five six times and scratched once. He was second in 2005 and 2003, third in 2006 and 2001, fourth in 2007 and fifth in 2002.

"I am tired of disappointing people," he said of the many close-calls. "I told them to cheer for someone who will win."

Close behind Little and Kleedehn will be Hugh Neff of Annie Lake, Yukon territory. He's in third place and will leave Dawson City at 10:33 a.m., 27 minutes after Kleedehn and 43 minutes after Little.

Little is running about 90 minutes faster than the race record Fairbanks musher Lance Mackey set to Dawson in 2007 en route to the third of his four straight wins. Mackey is skipping this year's Quest earlier to focus on the Iditarod.

Unless he can mount a furious charge over the second half of the race, four-time Iditarod champion Martin Buser of Big Lake appears out of contention. Having dropped four of his 14 dogs, he was ninth into Dawson City, and cannot leave until nearly 10 p.m. tonight, some 12 hours behind the leaders.