The chase is on

Brent Sass and Dallas Seavey have been mostly alone today as they've run down the Yukon, but they're about to get company. The chase pack of Jessie Holmes, Richie Diehl, Ryan Redington, Aaron Burmeister, and Mitch Seavey are all out of Ruby and onto the river after taking their mandatory 8 in the first Yukon checkpoint.

While Mitch Seavey has all but conceded the race and is "planning for the future" (according to a post by Danny Seavey on facebook today), the other teams are hoping that should Sass or DSeavey stall, they will be in striking distance and take advantage. To this point Burmeister has run the most conservative race of the chase pack, and Jessie Holmes is the one who seems most in control with a lot of speed. 

The way the two in front have taken their rests on the river,  it looks like Dallas will 8 in Nulato while Sass will push to Kaltag. There's a big gap between the two teams and right now in order for Dallas to overtake Sass, Sass has to make a mistake or his dogs have to decide to pull a Forrest Gump and just stop running. That's happened to Sass before, but he's shown he's learned that lesson as his team has come back stronger than ever and he's won two more Quests since then. 

Both Seavey and Sass are very happy with how their teams are doing. Dallas was concerned going into his 24 that his dogs were not interested in eating enough, but that's switched up now and he says he can't give them enough food. Sass's team has been steady and fast, with the musher noting earlier this week that it was "scary" how fast they were going while staying on their schedule. That sounds a lot like Mitch Seavey talking about his record breaking finish time when he won in 2017 with a team that he "could not slow down" even going into the finish.

It's not time to call the race, but it definitely looks like the chase pack will be the more exciting race. I seem to recall saying that in 2014 though as we all wondered if it'd be Dallas or Mitch coming in 3rd. Jeff King was solidly in control of the race, and Aliy finally pulled away from the Seaveys to beat them to the finish - only to both have trouble in the final stretch due to a freak windstorm. King would scratch, Aliy would come second, once again, to Dallas Seavey.