Veteran jockey Joe Bravo is switching coasts this summer, leaving his longtime base at Monmouth Park in New Jersey for Southern California. Bravo said Sunday that he will begin riding in California at Santa Anita from June 18-20 and will ride the Del Mar summer meeting from July 16 to Sept. 6. “I’ll go from one beach to another,” Bravo said. Bravo, 49, said his decision was largely based on new regulations at Monmouth Park that restrict jockeys from using the whip in races. Bravo has been the leading rider at Monmouth Park 13 times. “I’ve been opposed to it,” he said of the new rules. :: DRF Bets players get FREE Daily Racing Form Past Performances and up to 5% weekly cashback. Join Now.  “I won’t ride under those terms. You’ve got to have some kind of encouragement in a race. “They kind of chased me out of Jersey,” said Bravo, a native of that state. “I’ve created my whole life to be around the Jersey Shore in the summer.” Bravo will be represented by Matt Nakatani, who will continue to book mounts on behalf of Mario Gutierrez. Through Saturday, Gutierrez, a two-time winner of the Kentucky Derby, ranked seventh in the standings at the current Santa Anita winter-spring meeting with 32 wins. Bravo has not ridden at the current Monmouth Park meeting. This week he is scheduled to ride at Delaware Park on Monday and on Wednesday, at Belmont Park from Thursday through Saturday, and at Pimlico on Sunday, he said. On a long-term basis, Bravo said that schedule will not work. “I’d be pulling my hair out if I had to do that all summer long,” he said. Bravo rode the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting in 1999-2000, winning with 10 of 107 mounts. More recently at Santa Anita, Bravo won two Grade 1 races at Santa Anita in the final months of 2019 – the Breeders’ Cup Distaff on Blue Prize, and the American Oaks on Lady Prancealot. A career winner of 5,488 races, Bravo has ridden occasionally at Del Mar, winning the Grade 3 Jimmy Durante Stakes for 2-year-olds fillies in 2017 and 2018. “I’m familiar with the scenery,” Bravo said. Bravo does not plan to ride the two-week Los Alamitos summer meeting from June 25 to July 5 in order to ride on the East Coast, but does plan to return to Southern California well in advance of the Del Mar meeting to begin preparations. “I’m not looking to ride 10 or 11 races a day,” he said. “I’m looking for quality. California has some of the top races in the nation.” Bravo’s national reputation may help him gain mounts at Del Mar, considering his relationship with some Southern California trainers. “I’m just bringing back some of the old connections and they’ve been reaching out to me,” Bravo said. “That makes me feel good about it.” Bravo arrives in Southern California at a time when the jockey standings have added new names in the last few years. While Flavien Prat is well-established as the leading rider of recent years, Juan Hernandez, currently second in the standings at Santa Anita, relocated from Northern California in the summer of 2020. Third-ranked Umberto Rispoli moved from Hong Kong 18 months ago. Abel Cedillo, who is in fourth place, switched his base from Northern California in the summer of 2019.