Bravo out three to five weeks after knee surgery
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Jockey Joe Bravo was scheduled to undergo minor knee surgery on Friday that will keep him from riding for at least three weeks, the veteran rider said.
Bravo said the procedure, which will repair torn meniscus, would be done on an outpatient basis and would require a three- to five-week recovery period.
“The doctor said for normal athletes that the downtime is even faster,” Bravo said a few hours before the procedure. “I’ll try to make it back as soon as possible.”
Bravo sustained the injury in a recent race at Del Mar. He last rode there on Sept. 3 and had two mounts on Sept. 5 at Kentucky Downs. Bravo was taken off his mounts later on Sept. 3 at Del Mar as well as on Sept. 4 and Sept. 6-7.
“I bounced around and tore something in my knee,” Bravo said.
Bravo, who began riding in 1988, announced in June that he planned to move from Florida to California. Bravo has won 5,760 races in his career.
Bravo, who turned 55 on Thursday, won 7 races from 56 mounts at the Del Mar summer meeting. His best result from three mounts in stakes races was a second-place finish on Princesa Moche in the Grade 2 Yellow Ribbon Stakes on turf on Aug. 8.
“California has been good all summer long,” Bravo said. “My main goal is to be here for the Del Mar fall meet.”
Del Mar has a 13-day fall meeting from Nov. 6-29.
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