neck and neck

neck and neck (not comparable)

1. very close in progress, as in a race or contest

   The polls suggest that the candidates were neck and neck in the election.

   • 1779, Charles Macklin, Love à-la-mode, etc., page 20:

     It lay between me and Dick Riot madam; we were neck and neck for three miles, as hard as we could lay leg to ground, and running every inch, but at the first, I felt for him, found I had the foot […]

   • 1825 November, “Sporting Intelligence”, in Sporting Magazine, number 98, page 45:

     Mr. Prendergast's Rainbow filly, watched closely by Paul Jones, took the lead, and they ran almost neck and neck until near the cords, when Paul Jones made a rush, and came home by a length.

   Synonym: nip and tuck

• dead heat
• photo finish