FAIRBANKS -- Whoever wins this year's Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race will have major bragging rights.

Three former champions, five former second-place finishers and nine top-five finishers started the 27th running of the sled dog race between Fairbanks and Whitehorse, Yukon, on Saturday morning.

"You can tell who will be in the top 10, but how the top 10 is going to shape up, I don't think you can say that," said Hans Gatt, who won the race three consecutive times from 2002-2004.

When Abbie West's team headed up the Chena River at 11 a.m. Saturday, one thing was certain -- there will be a new champion. Last year's winner, Sebastian Schnuelle, did not enter.

Gatt is among the hopefuls, though he perplexed many in 2009 by scratching in Dawson City, Yukon, because his dogs were peaking and ready for the Iditarod.

That won't happen this year, he said.

"No, I'm doing it to win it," he said.

Gatt's winning streak was broken by Lance Mackey, who peeled off a record four consecutive victories from 2005-08 before taking a one-year hiatus.

Mackey headed down the chute without his trusty 10-year-old husky Larry, who's retired. Two-year-olds Amp and Wilson, both rookies, have become Mackey's go-to dogs.

Gatt and Mackey are two of the eight Quest racers who have also signed up for the Iditarod. All but one -- Belgian rookie Sam Deltour -- has a previous top-five Quest finish.

With so many top finishers running both races, the Quest's decision to start a week early seems to have paid off. The extra week before the Iditarod makes doing both more feasible.

Ken Anderson of Fox is running both races, and he appreciates the early start.

In 2008, Anderson spent about 12 hours at home between races. Now with toddler twins, "that's not enough time to do anything," he said.

The short turnaround hindered his team, he said.

"I remember I had three key dogs that were in the Quest that I felt if they had one more week they could have run the Iditarod," he said.

In his only Quest, Anderson finished 15 minutes behind Mackey two years ago. He approached the trail conservatively and shifted to a more aggressive style when it became one-on-one affair.

Anderson won't predict where he'll end up this year because he plans to "put on the blinders and do my own thing."

Fairbanks musher Brent Sass thinks he has a shot if he can avoid the trouble that always seems to find him.

"I'm usually a drama magnet. I get sick or I have to help somebody," he said. "I'm glad I'm out there in position to help people out, but I'm looking for a clean run."

With a dog team Sass said was his strongest ever, he aims to top his best finish of fifth place in 2008.

"Hopefully, I can be out in the front pack and be racing, but I'm sure that drama will find me some way."

It found him late in 2009, when a pair of costly mistakes forced him to camp 45 miles from the finish -- dropping him from fourth place to seventh.

Hugh Neff of Tok is back after a close call in 2009. He was just four minutes off Schnuelle's record time.

Other previous top-fivers are Gerry Willomitzer of Shallow Bay, Yukon, third in 2007; Zack Steer of Sheep Mountain, second in 2004; and David Dalton of Healy, third in 2004 and 2008.

Sonny Lindner, who won the first Quest in 1984 and took second in 1992, has returned after 18 years but said he is "kind of on tour" instead of gunning for the top spot.

Then there's the dark horses.

Fort Yukon's Josh Cadzow has plenty of time to learn before a breakout year -- he's only 22. But Cadzow said a win can't come soon enough for a Native musher in the Yukon Quest.

There are some great village mushers that can't afford to run the premier races, Cadzow said. He feels any success he has could create opportunities for those dog teams.

"Being a Native musher, I think for the Native people to get involved after this, it would be great," he said.

The folk-singing Norman Casavant of Whitehorse serenaded his pups to a 10th-place finish last year and he originally aimed for a top-five performance in 2010.

"It's going to be so hard because I did not expect all these great mushers (to sign up)," he said.