Heroic Move Rallies to Capture the Steve Sexton Mile

The closers prevailed May 25 in the $400,000 Steve Sexton Mile Stakes (G3) at Lone Star Park where Heroic Move rallied from the back of the pack at the top of the stretch to win driving by more than a length. Joining the 6-year-old son of Quality Road in the back and then later in the top three was Gigante. As these two turned on the afterburners, Neoequos fought a sixteenth of a mile from the wire to hold onto a lead he had wrestled from 7-5 favorite Touchuponastar. Heroic Move, however, had all the momentum and the running to room to power by Neoquos to win by a 1 1/2 lengths in 1:36.92. The winner was ridden by Geovanni Franco. Gigante ran between horses to take third by a three-quarters of a length from Touchuponastar and was three-quarters of a length behind Neoequos. Trained by Robertino Diodoro, Heroic Move also won the Sexton Mile in 2024 and ran third in this race last year. The horse is owned by a large partnership group that includes Arnold Bennewith, Rick Wiest, Clayton Wiest, Lana Wiest, Randy Howg, Norman Tremblay, and R 6 Stable. Diodoro has won the Sexton four years in a row. Gary and Mary West bred Heroic Move out of the grade 1-placed, multiple graded stakes winner Family Tree, a daughter of Smart Strike. Heroic Move has now compiled a 9-5-4 record from 30 starts and earned $1,267,081.