First-Year Sire Neck 'n Neck Dead at 10

Promising first-year Indiana sire and four-time graded stakes winner Neck 'n Neck  was euthanized recently following an irreparable leg injury.

The 10-year-old son of Flower Alley out of the winning Storm Boot mare Bootery entered stud this year at Breakway Farm near Dillsboro, Ind., following a career in which he won or placed in 16 black-type stakes at 11 different racetracks and earned $1,174,354.

"This has been heartbreaking, especially with the promise he had and the tremendous interest in him," said Breakway farm manager Tara Mathias. "People would come breed a mare to one of the other stallions on the farm, see Neck 'n Neck, and send another mare back to be bred to him."

Bred by A. Stevens Miles Jr. in Kentucky, Neck 'n Neck broke his maiden in the fall of his 2-year-old year and captured his first graded stakes at 3 in the Matt Winn Stakes (G3) at Churchill Downs. He ended the 2012 racing season with consecutive wins in the Indiana Derby (G2) and Ack Ack Handicap (G3). 

Neck 'n Neck was expected to be among the favorites for the 2012 Clark Handicap (G1), but 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 retired sound. A tough, tough horse," trainer Ian Wilkes previously told BloodHorse. Wilkes trained Neck 'n Neck for Miles.

Neck 'n Neck changed owners several times after the spring of 2015, going to Ted Mitzlaff after he finished a good third in the Alysheba Stakes (G2) to Protonico  and Noble Bird . Mitzlaff won the Greenwood Cup Stakes (G3) with the horse and then offered him through the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale as a racing prospect. McMahon & Hill Bloodstock bought Neck 'n Neck out of the Lantern Hill Farm consignment and the horse went on to race briefly for Waldorf Racing Stables. Neck 'n Neck was back at Keeneland for the 2016 November sale, where Clark Brewster purchased him for $50,000. With Brewster, Neck 'n Neck was runner up in the Sunland Park Handicap. 

In 2018 Neck 'n Neck's performance was tailing off and when he showed up 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 after Neck 'n Neck's retirement to Breakway was announced. Neck 'n Neck was the first stallion venture for Farkas, who is from Indiana and has been active in Thoroughbred racing for 30 years. The owner/breeder already owned four broodmares at the time and had planned to shop for more mares to support the young sire.