Chase is on behind top 2 in Iditarod

NOME, Alaska – Victory in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race is all but assured among two past winners who were waging a tight contest expected to end early this morning in this frontier town.

There’s a second-tier race underway in the 1,100-mile trek to Nome. Three strong contenders jostled for third place Tuesday behind defending champion Lance Mackey and four-time winner Jeff King.

Mackey was slightly ahead of King in a race in which half the top 10 mushers were previous champions, including 2004 winner Mitch Seavey, four-time winner Martin Buser and Rick Swenson, the Iditarod’s only five-time winner.

Mackey and King have run practically neck and neck in the last leg of the race. Mackey was first to reach the White Mountain checkpoint, 77 miles from the Nome finish line, arriving with 11 dogs at 8:53 a.m. Tuesday, followed at 9:50 a.m. by King and his full team of 16 dogs. All mushers are required to take an eight-hour break in White Mountain before heading up the icy Bering Sea coast for the homestretch.

Running an equally competitive race were Hans Gatt, a three-time Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race winner, Ken Anderson and Ramey Smyth.

Gatt, tentatively in third place, was the first to leave Elim, but not by much. Gatt left the checkpoint – 123 miles from Nome – with 12 dogs at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, followed 5 minutes later by Anderson and his 15 dogs and 17 minutes later by Smyth and nine dogs.

The top 30 finishers will get a piece of the $875,000 purse. The winner gets $69,000 and a $45,000 truck.

Twelve mushers have scratched since the start of the Iditarod and one has been withdrawn. The latest out of the race was 43-year-old Steve Madsen of Cougar, Wash.