Moore Leads Quest Out Of Braeburn

Allen Moore of Two Rivers, Alaska left Braeburn at 4:23 p.m. Yukon time on Monday afternoon, 100 miles from his first championship in a 1,000-mile sled dog race. Moore owned a 42-minute lead over Hugh Neff, who departed Braeburn at 5:05 pm.

Moore's lead would have been only 12 minutes if not for a half-hour time penalty assessed to Neff for arriving in a checkpoint without an axe, a mandatory piece of equipment. It is the second time in four years that Neff has been set back because of a time penalty. In 2009, he was penalized two hours for driving off the trail towards the end of the race -- and ended up finishing second that year, by a slim four minutes.

Moore is the husband of 2000 Yukon Quest champion Aliy Zirkle, the only woman to win the race. Moore's only other Yukon Quest appearance came in 2011, when he finished sixth. He has three Copper Basin 300 titles and is a veteran of four Iditarod finishes.

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