The Latest: Minnesota native maintains Iditarod lead

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) The Latest on the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race (all times local):

1:25 p.m.

Brent Sass is maintaining his lead Friday in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

He was the first musher to leave the checkpoint in Galena, which is about 430 miles from the finish line in Nome.

Sass is a 36-year-old Minnesota native who now lives in Eureka, Alaska.

Aliy (AL'-ee) Zirkle is still looking for her first Iditarod win after finishing in the top five the last four years. She's the only other musher to arrive in Galena, where she remained Friday afternoon.

The race started Sunday near Anchorage with 85 mushers. Five have since scratched.

The winner of the nearly thousand-mile race across Alaska is expected in Nome early next week.

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8 a.m.

A musher who was disqualified in last year's Iditarod is in the lead Friday of this year's 1,000-mile (1,600-kilometer) race across Alaska.

Brent Sass is a 36-year-old Minnesota native who now lives in Eureka, Alaska. He was the first musher to leave the checkpoint in Ruby, about 480 miles from the finish line in Nome.

He was disqualified last year when officials said the iPod Touch he uses to listen to music on the trail could have been used to connect wirelessly at checkpoints.

Aliy (AL'-ee) Zirkle is still looking for her first Iditarod win after finishing in the top five the last four years. She's the only other musher out of Ruby, but left nearly three hours after Sass.

The race started Sunday near Anchorage with 85 mushers. Five have since scratched.

The winner is expected in Nome early next week.