Anchorage Daily News

WHITEHORSE, Yukon -- Mushers can spend a lifetime searching for that exceptional lead dog.

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Lance Mackey won his fourth straight Yukon Quest.

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Andy was Rick Swenson's lead dog in four Iditarod victories. Granite helped lead Susan Butcher to three straight Iditarod victories. And Blondie was up front for two of Martin Buser's Iditarod wins.

But Lance Mackey has an entire crew that, seemingly, can run forever.

The 37-year-old Fairbanks musher sewed up his record fourth straight victory in the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race early Wednesday morning with a 15-minute win over his neighbor Ken Anderson.

And right there in harness were many of Mackey's dogs who had won this race a year ago and, 10 days later, started their championship run in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

Among them were:

• Larry, a 7-year-old male who finished his fourth Quest -- every one a championship.

• Hobo, a 5-year-old male who's twice won the Quest's Golden Harness Award.

"When I put him up front," Mackey said last year after the Iditarod, "he's the one that makes me go faster."

• Lippy, a 5-year-old female and Hobo's sister and, according the Mackey, "the dominant dog of the litter."

Still, Mackey said he's nominating Rev and Hansom for the Quest Golden Harness award. Hansom was another Mackey dog that finished the Quest and Iditarod back-to-back last year.

"Hansom's the only dog in my breed that goes back to my dad's breed in 1978 (the year Dick Mackey won the Iditarod). He's kind of sentimental to me."

Mackey finished with 11 dogs, more than anyone in the 24-musher Quest field.

"That's an awesome team of dogs," said Paul Gebhardt of Kasilof, runner-up to Mackey in last year's Iditarod. "They are absolutely in good physical shape. You ask anyone and they'll say his team is still (the one to beat)."

With his $35,000 Quest first-place prize in hand, Mackey will return to his kennel, which has more than 30 dogs, and figure out which 16 to bring south in defense of his Iditarod title on March 1.

His aim: show the mushing world that last year's unprecedented Idita-Quest feat wasn't a once-in-a-lifetime event.

Without a doubt, that will be a task far tougher than winning this Quest -- and not just because the marathons are back to back.

While the 2008 Iditarod boasts a stellar field that includes six former champions and 10 former runners-up, this 25th running of the Quest offered little more competition than Mackey's neighbor Anderson, who has two top-10 Iditarod finishes among his seven starts.

In fact, the third musher to leave the final checkpoint of Braeburn, 100 miles from the finish line, departed a whopping 19 hours after Mackey.

Two other former Quest champions in the field were well past their prime. Frank Turner, 60, won in 1995. Bill Cotter, 61, won in 1987.

And although Mackey has now captured three consecutive mushing ultramarathons, he did finish second to Allen Moore in January's Copper Basin 300 race and worked hard to hold off Anderson at the end of this Quest.

"I think my head's on backwards. I've been lookin' over my shoulder for about a hundred miles," Mackey told the Daily News-Miner.

Mackey's final time was 10 days, 12 hours and 14 minutes.

Mackey started the final day of racing with a 19-minute advantage over Anderson, and held it the entire 100-mile stretch from Braeburn to the finish.

Getting splits from spectators, Anderson said he shaved the deficit to four minutes before fading.

At the finish line, Mackey told Anderson, "I could sense you. I couldn't see you, but I knew you were there somewhere.''

Anderson, a Quest rookie, was not disappointed in being runner-up.

"This is probably the best race I've ever had, coming in second to a team like Lance's. He's the team to beat right now, so yeah, it's exciting," Anderson said.

Mackey will have little time to savor his victory. He's signed up for the Iditarod as well as the historic All-Alaska Sweepstakes in late March that boasts a $100,000 winner-take-all purse.

"Not to sound greedy, but I'd really love to win all three," Mackey said.

Gebhardt will be among a handful of top Iditarod mushers trying to prevent that from happening.

"It's a great thing," Gebhardt said about Mackey's fourth straight victory. "But the (Quest's) caliber was a lot less than the Iditarod.

"I'm glad for him, but I hope it took some spark out of his dogs for the Iditarod."

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reporter Matias Saari and Anchorage Daily News reporter Kevin Klott contributed to this report.

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