He was among the better apprentices in his cohort. Then he dropped off, with winners coming few and far between. Now the renaissance is on in earnest.

Bebeto Harvey’s career reached new heights on Saturday, December 3, 2022, at Caymanas Park when he utilised all his skills in the saddle to win the Mouttet Mile on the Philip Feanny conditioned Excessive Force.

Harvey brought Excessive Force with an electrifying run in deep stretch against the inside rails to win the three-year-old and upward Graded Stakes event by a length and a quarter.

“First and foremost, I have to thank God for everything, for giving me the strength and mindset to do my job. x. I am grateful, and I also want to thank Mr Feanny and the other connections for believing in me that I could get the job done,” Harvey said.

“The trainer [Feanny] and I have been teaming up and have come a long way with this horse. For this race, it is the most prestigious race in the Caribbean and so I just kept a calm head and rode my race.

“The plan was to get a clear break, don’t get any interference, watch the leaders, and stay as close to them as possible because I know they will falter.

“It was intense out there, so I watched them [rivals] and just picked my position to make my move at the right time to take me home,” Harvey explained.

He continued: “This is the racetrack that I have been training on; I’ve been trying to lose weight and get back into shape to be healthier. I feel it under my own feet, and so I know what I am going to feel when I am on the horse out there. I know that today (Saturday, December 3) the racetrack is very fast and light, and so you have to be careful on the lead — and that is what I did. I just watched them carefully and tried to move when it was most important, and we came out as the winner.”

Excessive Force was held off the pace by Harvey and watched as the country’s two leading runners — Mahogany (Reyan Lewis) and Atomica (Dane Dawkins) — battled for supremacy down the backstretch.

Harvey waited patiently and only began to run after the leaders approached the half-mile mark, but he was still off the pace when Mahogany upped the tempo ahead of Runaway Algo (Christopher Mamdeen) while Atomica faded through the field.

Mahogany turned for home with a healthy lead and looked the likely winner passing the furlong (200m) pole, but Harvey produced his mount for an effort and Excessive Force went by to score convincingly.

“Well, I was 100 per cent confident in my victory. There was no difference about the race except that the purse was big and mighty, but it is the same horses running, and [so] I just went out there and rode the race I knew and the horse I knew,” explained Harvey.