UNALAKLEET, Alaska — Defending champion Lance Mackey beat four-time champion Jeff King out of this checkpoint tonight, launching the last leg of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

Mackey said he was striving for a repeat of last year's race, when he trailed King into the Inupiat village of Unalakleet on the coast and went on to win the 1,100-mile race.

"We all know how that story ends," Mackey said as he changed sleds for the trek across the icy, often windy coast. "If history repeats itself, things are looking good."

King, from Denali Park, said different factors this year — including a much stronger team — will prevail in his favor. He expects to gain quickly on Mackey somewhere up the trail.

"I think I have more speed than he does," the 51-year-old musher said. "But clearly, this could be a race. I thought his team looked pretty good coming here."

King was first to reach Unalakleet, arriving with all 16 dogs at about 2 p.m., an hour-and-a-half ahead of Mackey, from Fairbanks. But Mackey was first out of the community of 750, leaving at 6:17 p.m., followed 44 minutes later by King.

Before taking off, King asked checkpoint volunteers for Mackey's departure time. But asked if that affected his own departure, he said, "No, it's about the time I was going to go."

Mackey was the front-runner until King shot past him early Sunday after leaving the Kaltag checkpoint for Unalakleet, 261 miles from the finish line in Nome.

In Unalakleet, while King took a nap, Mackey fed his dogs and joked with locals, stopping to sign autographs on several parkas. He told checkpoint veterinarians that he would drop two dogs that weren't performing as well, leaving him with 12 dogs.

Many of these dogs were with Mackey last year when he became the first musher to sweep the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race and Iditarod. Mackey also won the Yukon Quest last month with many of the same dogs that are running in this Iditarod.

But the team has not been running to par with past races, compared with King's dog, which have looked alert and strong.

Mackey's dogs have been hampered by diarrhea and dulled by unseasonably warm temperatures, which were starting to drop on Sunday. They have turned up their noses at food as some checkpoints.

Most were relishing their food at Unalakleet, and Mackey said they were taking a turn for the better, responding to medicine and cooler temperatures. They also stopped to rest for at least six hours after leaving Kaltag.

He was coy when asked how long he planned to stay in Unalakleet.

"Now's the time to start paying attention to the neighbors," he said, referring to close contenders King and veteran Paul Gebhardt, last year's runner-up, who was running third Sunday.

Almost two dozen mushers were heading to Unalakleet Sunday night. Among them were Sebastian Schnuelle of Whitehorse, Yukon; Kjetil Backen of Porsbrunn, Norway; three-time Yukon Quest winner Hans Gatt of Whitehorse; four-time Iditarod champion Martin Buser of Big Lake; and Two Rivers veteran Rick Swenson, the Iditarod's only five-time winner.

Eight mushers have scratched since the start of the race and one has been withdrawn. One dog has died.

On Sunday, rookie Rodney Whaley of Franklin, Tenn., scratched in Cripple with 13 dogs.

A field of 86 mushers remains on the trail.

The front-runners take about 10 days to make the trek, so the winner could cross the finish line under Nome's burled arch by Tuesday.

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