A. Stevens Miles Jr.’s Neck ’n Neck moved past pace-setting Big
Town at the three-eighths pole and drew off to win the $54,335 allowance
feature by 6 ½ lengths on a sunny and mild afternoon at Churchill Downs.
Trained by Ian Wilkes and ridden by Leandro
Goncalves, Neck ’n Neck covered the 1 1/16 miles over a fast main track in
1:43.53.
A 3-year-old homebred son of Flower Alley out of the Storm
Boot mare Bootery, Neck ’n Neck posted his second win in nine starts with both
victories coming at Churchill Downs and under Goncalves. For the victory, Neck
’n Neck picked up a check for $33,180 and increased his career earnings to
$130,370.
Neck ’n Neck returned $2.60, $2.10 and $2.10. Big Town,
ridden by Calvin Borel, returned $4 and $2.80 with Quiet Man,
ridden by Corey Lanerie, finishing a head back in third and returning
$3.80 to show.
Thursday’s ninth and final race featured a $276,914 Super
Hi-5 carryover because no one correctly selected the top five finishers in
Saturday’s Kentucky Derby. A single-day record $1,051,584 was wagered on
Thursday’s Super Hi-5 to bring the pool total to $1,328,498. There were 260
tickets with the winning combination of 9-4-1-8-2, and each was worth
$4,325.20.