RUBY, Alaska (AP) – The village bell rang as defending champion Lance Mackey and his 14 dogs sailed up a snowy hill Friday morning as the first team in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race to pull into this Yukon River outpost.

“Don’t count me out just yet,” the Fairbanks musher said as his dogs yelped at the checkpoint in Ruby about 500 miles from the race’s finish in Nome. Mackey arrived at 7:32 a.m., more than 2½ hours before four-time winner Jeff King of Denali Park clocked in at 10:08 a.m. with all 16 dogs.

For beating a record field to the Yukon, a tired Mackey was treated to the traditional seven-course gourmet feast. Mackey will also receive $5,000 in $1 bills.

The 37-year-old musher, who has already taken his mandatory 24-hour rest, plans to take one of the two required eight-hour breaks at the Athabascan village of 170. After feeding his dogs, he was chowing down on halibut with peach chutney, beef fillet stuffed with Alaskan King crab, asparagus and bleu cheese, and other delicacies.

“Incredible food,” he said.

Mackey said his run has been stymied by issues with his dogs, including warm weather zapping their strength and scuffles between the team leaders. The 24-hour rest seemed to revive the team, although they still were struggling with bouts of diarrhea. So far, he’s had to drop two dogs, including Hobo, a leader.

“They’re coming around,” he said in Ruby. Still, he was somewhat surprised he was leading the race, considering his dogs’ inferior performance, compared to other races.

“At the moment I’m first here by some kind of luck because my team isn’t 100 percent, by no means,” he said.

Mackey was the first to leave the race’s halfway point, the checkpoint in Cripple, late Thursday.

He took off nearly two-and-a-half hours ahead of Hans Gatt of Whitehorse, Yukon.

Thirteen other mushers were en route to Ruby, including four-time winner King and Rick Swenson of Two Rivers, the race’s only five-time winner.

Mackey last year became the first to record back-to-back wins in the 1,100-mile Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race and the Iditarod. He also won the Yukon Quest last month with many of the same dogs with him on the Iditarod.

His menu in Ruby, prepared by a chef flown in from Anchorage, also included chicken and wild mushroom terrine, Yukon potato bisque with shrimp ravioli and raspberry crepes.

Each plate was served with a fresh glass of wine.

Rookie musher Kim Franklin of Britain was withdrawn from the race Thursday after two dogs became separated from her team. Franklin reported that one of her dogs chewed through the gangline and race officials said Franklin couldn’t find the dogs and continued to Rohn. It’s against Iditarod rules to arrive at a checkpoint without the same number of dogs.

Officials said the two dogs were found and released to their handler in Anchorage.

Six mushers have scratched since the start of the race. A record field of 89 mushers remains on the trail.

In its 36th running, the Iditarod commemorates a run by sled dogs in 1925 to deliver lifesaving diphtheria serum to Nome.

The modern-day Iditarod trail crosses frozen rivers, dense woods and two mountain ranges, then goes along the dangerous sea ice up the Bering Sea shore to the finish line under Nome’s burled arch. Along the way, mushers can encounter blinding snow storms and temperatures far below zero.

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On the Net:

www.iditarod.com

AP-ES-03-07-08 1645EST