The Top 15 mushers are in Takotna now. It remains to be seen who stays the 24 hours and who moves on. I can see Lance Mackey is still in McGrath and can imagine him going through to Ophir for his 24 hour rest or even further if the trail permits.

Current Standings as of 13:13 UTC

The trail seems to get faster and faster as the top group blows through checkpoint after checkpoint. Check out the top 27 teams below

OK here is the low down from the last few hours, Aliy Zirkle has mushed into the lead by going through Rohn, Jeff King moved into 3rd place and Lance Mackey dropped back to 10th place. All in all there was a bit of a shuffle in the front of the pack and the other mushers are not too far behind at the moment. From my point of view the race is open and I think whoever gets the first mandatory rest in and comes out of it strong will be first to the Yukon to pick up some gold.

Below are the current standings of all teams in the race and currently no musher has scratched which is also a good sign for the trail and the condition of the teams and mushers.

Around 3 PM Alaskan Standard Time the leading group has moved out of Rainy Pass and is on the way to the next Checkpoint in Rhon. Many of the mushers took a break for a few hours to rest the dogs and re-stock the sleds.

I am going to bed now  and will post another update when I get up in a few hours. Below are the top 10 mushers. Hugh Neff and Ray Redington Jr. are the only ones in the top group staying behind in Rainy Pass for now. Aaron Burmeister blew through Rainy Pass just stopping long enough to restock his sled and sign ghe check in sheet.

The first 4 mushers have reached the Rainy Pass Checkpoint. Paul Gebhardt has dropped one dog in Finger Lake all others arrived with 16 dogs. Looking at the GPS Tracker. There are more already in Rainy Pass but the standings do not reflect that yet. I will refresh here as soon as the standings update.

Nicolas made it first into Finger Lake CheckPoint. Congratulations

We have a new leader Brent Sass left Skwentna first and is in the lead. Lance Mackey has moved up further to 9th place.

More later tonight as my work day looks to be mighty busy today. 

Looking at the current standings after the first 20 or so have passed through Yentna Station it is clear to see that the likes of Lance Mackey, Jeff King, Ally Zirkle etc. are bound to make up some time despite the slow trail.

Jeff King has moved up 4 places already and Ally has passed already 5 mushers in front of her. Ray Redington Jr. is still in the lead and Bruce Linton posted the fastest time to Yentna so far at 3 hours and 42 minutes. Jeff King took 3 hours 59 minutes, Lance Mackey 4 hours and 2 minutes. The top 15 are all within 20 minutes in and out of Yentna and moving on to Skwentna and then on to Finger Lake.

The current standings are below. Clicking on a link will take you to Iditarod.com and the official Musher or Checkpoint Information Page. The Insights link on the right requires an active Iditarod Insider Subscription.

Pos	Musher	Bib	Checkpoint	In		Out		Rest In Chkpt	Time Enroute	Previous			Layover Completed		Status	Insights
				Time	Dogs	Time	Dogs			Checkpoint	Time Out	Speed (mph)	8hr	24hr
1	Ray Redington Jr	2	Yentna Station	3/4 17:44:00	16	3/4 17:49:00	16	0h 5m	3h 44m	Willow	3/4 14:00:00	8.04
2	Jodi Bailey	6	Yentna Station	3/4 17:52:00	16	3/4 18:05:00	16	0h 13m	3h 44m	Willow	3/4 14:08:00	8.04
3	Tom Thurston	5	Yentna Station	3/4 18:00:00	16	3/4 18:06:00	16	0h 6m	3h 54m	Willow	3/4 14:06:00	7.69
4	William Pinkham	4	Yentna Station	3/4 18:02:00	16	3/4 18:08:00	16	0h 6m	3h 58m	Willow	3/4 14:04:00	7.56
5	Cim Smyth	8	Yentna Station	3/4 18:13:00	16	3/4 18:18:00	16	0h 5m	4h 1m	Willow	3/4 14:12:00	7.47
6	Jeff King	10	Yentna Station	3/4 18:15:00	16	3/4 18:19:00	16	0h 4m	3h 59m	Willow	3/4 14:16:00	7.53
7	Nicolas Petit	9	Yentna Station	3/4 18:15:00	16	3/4 18:21:00	16	0h 6m	4h 1m	Willow	3/4 14:14:00	7.47
8	DeeDee Jonrowe	17	Yentna Station	3/4 18:22:00	16	3/4 18:27:00	16	0h 5m	3h 52m	Willow	3/4 14:30:00	7.76
9	Aliy Zirkle	14	Yentna Station	3/4 18:23:00	16	3/4 18:28:00	16	0h 5m	3h 59m	Willow	3/4 14:24:00	7.53
10	Kelley Griffin	20	Yentna Station	3/4 18:25:00	14	3/4 18:29:00	14	0h 4m	3h 49m	Willow	3/4 14:36:00	7.86
11	Kelly Maixner	12	Yentna Station	3/4 18:34:00	16	3/4 18:34:00	16	0h 0m	4h 14m	Willow	3/4 14:20:00	7.09
12	Lance Mackey	18	Yentna Station	3/4 18:35:00	16	3/4 18:40:00	16	0h 5m	4h 3m	Willow	3/4 14:32:00	7.41