updated 10:25 p.m. ET March 10, 2006

RUBY, Alaska - Iditarod musher Paul Gebhardt ate and drank lightly on Friday during the seven-course gourmet meal he earned for arriving first on the shores of the Yukon before heading to the next checkpoint of Galena.

Gebhardt’s dog team pulled into the village of Ruby near midnight as several other mushers leading the 75-team field took their mandatory 24-hour breaks at the halfway point of Cripple, a remote tent checkpoint about 70 miles back.

The Kasilof musher has not yet taken the 24-hour rest, meaning many teams will likely catch him further down the Yukon as they race more than 1,100 miles from Anchorage to Nome. But he seemed unhurried as he clinked wine glasses and quietly traded dog mushing tales with his chosen guest, 1975 Iditarod winner and Ruby resident Emmitt Peters.

“I like the wine, but I can’t drink it, or I’d be the first musher on the Yukon to get a DUI,” Gebhardt joked, as a crowd in the community center watched him pick through dishes including portobello bruschetta, rosemary lamb loin and peach crepes cooked in cognac.

The feast, which cost about $1,200 per person, has been cooked on site for 20 years by top chefs from an Anchorage hotel for the first musher to the Yukon, the longest river in Alaska and more than halfway through the world’s longest sled dog race.

Executive chef Stephen England of the Millennium Alaskan Hotel said he can prepare the spread in less than 40 minutes to accommodate the sleep-deprived mushers.

“We don’t want to keep them waiting too long because they’re usually in a hurry,” said England, as he heated the mostly preassembled dishes on a portable stove in the crowded spruce-log community center.

Slide show   The Week in Sports Pictures Manny messes up, the Tour takes off to Spain, Nomar returns and more. more photos

Gebhardt, 49, also collected $3,500 in fresh $1 bills for arriving first in the Athabaskan Indian village of about 180 people.

Gebhardt left Ruby after taking one of the other mandatory rests — eight hours in one of the four checkpoints on the Yukon — and arrived in Galena, about 50 miles downriver, at about 3:30 p.m.

At 4 p.m., three-time winner Jeff King followed Gebhardt’s sled tracks down the Yukon as the sun shone on the nearby Kilbuck-Kuskokwim Mountains. The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race follows a busy snowmobile trail on the wide snowy river, which is the only way to commute between villages in the roadless region.

Several other top contenders trickled into Ruby, about 500 miles from Nome, including four-time winner Doug Swingley, of Lincoln, Mont., and DeeDee Jonrowe of Willow, a favorite Alaska musher who has finished second twice.

Competitors in the world’s longest sled dog race pass through 24 checkpoints between Anchorage and the old gold mining town of Nome on the state’s western coast. Top finishers usually arrive in Nome in nine to 10 days.

The race started Sunday in Willow after a ceremonial start 60 miles south in Anchorage.

Eight mushers have scratched from the race.

MORE FROM OTHER SPORTS

Other sports Section Front

Texas' Garrido gets 4 days in jail for DWI Ivey headlines final table for poker’s main event Mercury suspend Taurasi after DUI arrest   Injury to scratched Derby favorite prompts lawsuit U.S. cricket wants to launch T20 Premier League Gatti's wife denies murdering husband Study: Women have advantage in college sports Jockeys figure out the science of speed An unbreakable record? Don’t be fooled Jeep World on NBC Other sports Section Front   Add Other sports headlines to your news reader: