Jessie Royer will lead 21 Yukon Quest mushers out of Whitehorse Saturday

WHITEHORSE, Yukon — The Yukon Quest banquet is an evening-long production, in part because it pays the bills for the mushers and for the race organization.

In their final public event before they meet at the start line on Saturday, Yukon Quest mushers and their fans gathered in a hotel ballroom Thursday night in downtown Whitehorse.

There was chicken dinner, there was a bit of bawdy dancing and there was some dog mushing humor from a Gold Rush- era-styled Whitehorse troupe.

Then, one by one, mushers took the stage to pull a slip of paper with a number out of a bunny boot. The number signified the order the mushers would leave the start line Saturday in Whitehorse. The ceremony was a chance for the race organization to publicly thank the businesses that sponsored musher bibs and  for mushers to thank their supporters.

Late in the evening, after lots of thank-yous to Yukon Quest volunteers, dog handlers, spouses, dog food companies and wilderness outfitters, race newcomer Jessie Royer took the stage in a purple Montana hoodie and a matching "girls with guns" ballcap.

"I was just saying I don't mind being in the front, so No. 1," she said as the crowd applauded.

Ordinarily the starting position is difficult for rookie mushers because it likely involves being passed by several experienced teams. But Royer isn't a typical rookie: The 40-year-old has been in the sport for 25 years and has completed the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race 14 times, including a career-best fourth-place finish in 2015. In Fairbanks, she spends summers demonstrating sled dogs for Riverboat Discovery guests.

The three-minute difference between each starting musher is corrected for at the dog teams' first rest stops.

This year, musher No. 7 also drew lots of banquet applause: Ester musher Paige Drobny.

"This is sort of an ironic number for me today. We have two vehicles — two trucks — and they're both in the shop. So we borrowed a truck, and it's broken down outside of Whitehorse right now," she said. "So lucky No. 7 is for my dog team, not for my trucks. But the dogs are doing great."

Indeed, Drobny, a four-time Iditarod finisher, is fresh from a second-place finish in the Copper Basin 300. Her strong showing came after her truck broke down on the way to starting line in Glennallen.

Compounding the irony, her team's sponsors include the Fairbanks Lithia Chevy Buick GMC dealership. But Drobny gave the business a sincere "thank you" despite her recent troubles.

"These guys have actually pushed other people out of the shop so our trucks get in there, to try to get them ready on time," she said. "There's just no way to get parts up to Fairbanks quickly. They have just moved mountains for us, and unfortunately beyond mountains are other mountains."

Led by Royer, the 21 mushers are scheduled to leave Whitehorse Saturday. If this year is similar to recent years, expect the first teams on the Chena River in Fairbanks by about Feb. 13.

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner writer Sam Friedman is covering the 2017 Yukon Quest from Whitehorse to Fairbanks.