Straining for a Metaphor

        Sometimes they speak of a close political competition as a horse race.  But when the race is very close, twice I've seen reporters in print calling the race "neck in neck."

       There's a disconnect there.   Maybe the reporters have never been to a horse race or seen one on TV or film.  Maybe they've only heard the expression, not actually seen it in print before.  But that's where the expression originated:  Two horses fighting it out down to the wire, necks straining in synchronous forward motion.  Only a photo-finish can decide the victor!

       Since the metaphor is a horse race, the journalist today in the L.A. Times should have had it that Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz in Israel were "neck and neck"; how else will the expression make sense?