Neff has comfortable Quest lead after midway rest

But Wednesday they rested in the historic Yukon gold rush town of Dawson City as a stream of mushers checked in for a 36-hour rest midway through the 1,000-mile race from Whitehorse to Fairbanks.

The first half of the race scattered the field like a shotgun blast. Leader Hugh Neff of Tok holds a fat three-hour lead on defending champion Hans Gatt of Whitehorse.

Gatt, for his part, has nearly a two-hour edge on Ken Anderson of Fairbanks, who has a 95-minute gap on Brent Sass of Eureka.

Sass is at the fore of a pack that also includes fifth-place Sebastian Schnuelle, sixth-place Allen Moore, seventh-place Wade Marrs and eighth-place Dallas Seavey, all of whom are within two hours of Sass.

Then there's another three-hour gap to the duo of Dan Kaduce and Kelley Griffin. Six hours behind them is Joshua Cadzow of Fort Yukon.

Don't expect a lot of drafting in the second half of the race.

"I'm wondering if my dogs are ever going to recognize when there's another team's scent on the trail," Neff told KUAC radio after arriving in Dawson, according to the Fairbanks News-Miner.

Neff earned four ounces of gold nuggets for reaching Dawson first. A prize of $28,466 awaits the winner at the Fairbanks finish line.

Michelle Phillips of Tagish, Yukon, scratched upon her arrival in Dawson. She's the third musher to drop out of the race.

Former Iditarod champion Joe May, who raced the Quest in 1985 and 1986, said Thursday that he helped convince race officials years ago to bump the Dawson City layover from 24 to 36 hours.

"At the post-race drivers' meeting in 1985, when ideas to improve the race were discussed, I stood up and suggested that 24 hours wasn't enough time to sleep, go down to the (Eldorado Hotel) or the Westminster Hotel (whose bar, variously know as the Snakepit, the Armpit or the Pit, is well known in town) and celebrate, sleep it off and leave town with a clear head. That required at least 36 hours," May said.

Mushers voted to extend the break to 36 hours, and it's stayed that way ever since.

"It wasn't like there was a wild party going continuously, but beers and a burger at the Eldo with friends or an evening at the Pit. It was a little more wild west than the ordinary routine. Good for the body, good for the mind," May said.

And, no doubt, a little cozier than Eagle, the first checkpoint in Alaska, where the temperature often dips well below zero.

Reach reporter Mike Campbell at mcampbell@adn.com or 257-4329.