Neck 'n Neck nearing return to competition

It has been nearly a year since multiple

stakes winner Neck 'n Neck went to the sidelines while training for

Churchill Downs' Clark Handicap, but a

Sunday workout provided solid evidence that the son of Flower Alley could be

stepping into a starting gate soon for trainer Ian Wilkes.

The winner of last year's Indiana Derby, Ack Ack Handicap and Matt Winn breezed five furlongs over

Churchill's

fast dirt in 1:01 4/5 on a cool Sunday morning with regular rider

Brian Hernandez Jr. in the saddle for the move, which ranked as the fifth

fasted of 22 at the distance.

The work was the third five-eighths move in the month of

September for the A. Stevens Miles Jr. homebred, whose bid for the 2012 Clark Handicap ended

when he suffered a season-ending injury during a workout under the Twin Spires. He

fractured a sesamoid in a front ankle that required surgery.

Wilkes has handled Neck 'n Neck very patiently in his

return to serious training and was pleased with the colt's latest move.

"He's getting closer," Wilkes said. "He's been back a few

months and I've taken my time with him."

Wilkes had the colt on the 2012 Kentucky Derby trail,

running a solid fourth to eventual Belmont Stakes winner Union Rags in the

Fountain of Youth. A next-out fifth-place finish behind Take Charge Indy in the Florida Derby prompted

Wilkes to step back and hit the reset button with Neck 'n Neck.

He romped to an easy victory in a Churchill Downs allowance

race in May and followed that with a 7 1/4-length triumph in the 1 1/16-mile

Matt Winn over the Louisville, Kentucky, track.

Neck 'n Neck followed those wins with a runner-up finish to

Alpha in Saratoga's Jim Dandy before a sixth-place run behind dead-heat winners

Alpha and Golden Ticket in the Travers. He then rolled from far back to win

Hoosier Park's Indiana Derby before defeating older rivals in the Ack Ack, a

race that appeared to set him up well for the Clark.

The injury changed everything, but Wilkes believes that the

post-injury Neck 'n Neck he has watched in recent weeks has every chance to be

the kind of horse his connections believed he would become at three.

"I think he can," Wilkes said. "He's given every indication

that he can come back just as good."

Neck 'n Neck will soon have an opportunity to justify his

trainer's faith. Wilkes indicated the $100,000 Michael G. Schaefer Memorial Mile

at Indiana Downs on October 5 could be the colt's first start of his

long layoff.

"The work was good this morning -- nice and solid." Wilkes

said. "I just got to see how he comes out."

Janis Whitham's Fort Larned, Wilkes' stable star and winner

of the 2012 Breeders' Cup Classic and this season's Stephen Foster Handicap at

Churchill, was also on the track Sunday. The five-year-old son of E Dubai

galloped in his first appearance on track since a half-mile breeze in :49 on

Thursday.

The training move was his first since Wilkes announced that

a muscle strain had knocked Fort Larned out of a planned run in Saratoga's Woodward

on August 31. A defense of his Breeders' Cup Classic win at Santa Anita is

the 2013 objective for Fort Larned, and Wilkes indicated Sunday that a run in

the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park on September 28 is the most likely

spot for his star's final Classic prep.

Fort Larned is also nominated to Churchill Downs' first

running of the $175,000 Homecoming Classic, a 1 1/8-mile race for

three-year-olds and up, which is scheduled on the same day as the Jockey Club Gold

Cup.

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