Musher Jeff King of Denali Park has overtaken Martin Buser for the lead in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

King, who won the race in 1993, entered Nulato a minute ahead of Buser, the 1992 and 1994 champ. Buser, of Big Lake, was 15 minutes ahead of King when they left Galena for the 52-mile run to Nulato.King reached this Yukon River checkpoint at 10:12 a.m. Saturday, followed by Buser. The racers were 400 miles from the finish at Nome.

Defending champion Doug Swingley of Simms, Mont., was third into Nulato at 10:45 and Dee Dee Jonrowe of Willow followed at 10:54.

About two hours behind the immediate frontrunners was Tim Osmar of Kasilof. Osmar has nine dogs in harness and King has a dozen. The other top mushers are running with 11 dogs each. Mushers started the race with up to 16 dogs.

It's unlikely for mushers further back at this point to make up the time. No musher in the history of the race has been more than three hours behind the leader at this point and won.

The top racers are two to four hours ahead of Buser's 1994 record pace for the northern race route being run this year. They're making good time on the hard Yukon River trail, which gets plenty of use by snowmachiners commuting from village to village.

Weather is not expected to be a major factor in the remaining days of the race. Partly cloudy skies are forecast along the race route, with highs of 10 to 15 Sunday and lows of zero to 10 below. Assuming no major storm or other factor delays the racers, the winner should reach Nome sometime Tuesday evening.

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