Joe Bravo took off his Feb. 12 mount at Santa Anita Park as a precautionary measure after the rider was involved in a tragic breakdown during the running of yesterday's Sweet Life Stakes.
The jockey was slated to ride Calvin Nguyen and Joey Tran's Ag Bullet in the $100,000 Lady of Shamrock Stakes.
Crossing the dirt track in the Sweet Life, which was contested over the 6 1/2-furlong downhill turf course at Santa Anita, Bravo's mount, the Simon Callaghan-trained 3-year-old filly Decorated My Life, suddenly went down, taking Bravo with her. Decorated My Life, a winner in her native Ireland and runner-up in the Dec. 3 Jimmy Durante Stakes (G3T) at Del Mar, sustained a leg injury and was euthanized.
Following the race, Bravo was transported to Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, Calif., for further observation. The rider expressed lower back pain.
Bravo's agent Matt Nakatani on Twitter Saturday night reported that the rider was "in good spirits and patiently waiting on test results." Sunday morning, Nakatani tweeted out another update on Bravo's condition and indicated that the jockey would resume riding next week.
"Jersey Joe" Bravo moved his tack to California in 2021 after winning 13 riding titles at Monmouth Park. A large factor in Bravo's cross-country move was a result of the strict riding crop rules imposed on jockeys from the New Jersey Racing Commission that year.
A Breeders' Cup-winning jockey, Bravo has amassed 5,590 wins and earnings of $197,106,367 in his career.
