Millionaire Neck 'n Neck to Stand at Breakway Farm

Four-time graded stakes winner and millionaire Neck 'n Neck will enter stud next year at Scott and Janice Jordan's Breakway Farm.

The 9-year-old son of Flower Alley was a durable competitor, starting in 45 races from 2 to 9 and compiling a 6-10-9 record. He won or placed in 16 black-type races, of which 10 were graded, and retired this summer with earnings of $1,174,354.

"This is a horse that could do anything," recalled Ian Wilkes, who trained the horse through the first half of his 6-year-old season for owner/breeder A. Stevens Miles Jr. "He was quite tractable in a race. He could be up close or come from out of it. He was always a good-feeling horse with a lot of personality."

Bred by Miles in Kentucky, Neck 'n Neck is out of the winning Storm Boot mare Bootery, whose dam, stakes-placed Magic Way, is a half sister to group 3 stakes winner Fedra Gulch, as well as black-type winner and Hawthorne Race Course record-setter Bendecida. 

Neck 'n Neck had an affinity for Churchill Downs' main track, breaking his maiden there at 2 and winning his first stakes under the Twin Spires in the Matt Winn Stakes (G3) at 3. He went on to finish second in the Jim Dandy Stakes (G2) and had consecutive victories in the Indiana Derby (G2) at Hoosier Park and the Ack Ack Handicap (G3) back at Churchill. 

Heading into the Clark Handicap (G1) as one of the favorites, Neck 'n Neck fractured a sesamoid and was sidelined for six months. 

"It is a shame the end of his 3-year-old year got cut short a bit, but then he came back and raced until 9 and retires sound. A tough, tough horse," said Wilkes. Neck 'n Neck won stakes from one mile up to 1 1/2 miles in the Greenwood Cup Stakes (G3). He also placed in the 1 3/4-mile Marathon Stakes (G2) at Keeneland.

Neck 'n Neck changed hands a couple times following Miles' death at age 85 in April 2015. The horse was offered through the 2015 Keeneland November Breeding Stock sale, where McMahon & Hill Bloodstock bought him for $195,000 out of the Lantern Hill Farm consignment. A year later, he passed through the November sale again, and Clark Brewster bought him for $50,000 and transferred the horse to trainer Steve Asmussen. 

By the time he was 9, Neck 'n Neck's performances were tailing off, and he was entered in a claiming race at Oaklawn Park. Wilkes contacted his client, Dennis Farkas, and proposed they claim the horse together.

"As part of the deal, we planned on standing him in Indiana," said Farkas, who is from Indiana and has been active in Thoroughbred racing for 30 years. Neck 'n Neck will be Farkas' first stallion venture. The owner/breeder already owns four broodmares and said he plans on buying a couple more at the November sales to support Neck 'n Neck, who will stand for $2,000.

"I think the Indiana program is a great program, and I believe Neck 'n Neck will be a standout," said Farkas, who co-owns the horse with Tracey Wilkes, Ian's wife. "This is a good-looking, well-balanced horse that could really run."