Joe Bravo thriving in Fair Grounds colony

NEW ORLEANS – Jersey Joe Bravo is having a good go of things in the Big Easy.

Thirteen times the leading rider at Monmouth Park, Bravo is based for the first time at Fair Grounds, and, excepting a New Orleans winter’s damp chill that caught him off guard, Bravo has been thriving. After the Feb. 13 card, Bravo stood sixth in the jockey standings with 32 wins, a total he’s amassed from just 111 mounts. Bravo’s 29 percent strike rate tops the meet among jockeys with more than one mount.

“This winter was an experiment for me, trying it out here,” Bravo said Tuesday. “Could you ask it to be any better? I’m 46 years old. I’m not looking to ride a lot of races. I can’t physically ride a lot of races. This is a really nice place to be, and I’ve had a chance to branch out. I’ve never been here before other than to come in, ride a race, and leave. I’ve gotten to meet some of the Midwest stables I don’t know that well.”

It was trainer Mike Stidham, Bravo said, who last summer planted the idea of giving Fair Grounds a try.

“One of the main reasons I’m here is to find some good 3-year-olds,” said Bravo, and it is Stidham who will give Bravo a leg up on the 3-year-old Supreme Aura on Saturday in the Grade 2, $400,000 Risen Star Stakes.

Daniel Centeno rode Supreme Aura to a debut victory last summer at Delaware Park, but Bravo had the mount when Supreme Aura ran his record to 2 for 2 with a sharp first-level allowance win Jan. 5 at Fair Grounds. Both races came at six furlongs, and Supreme Aura, a son of Candy Ride, tries two turns at the same time he jumps into graded-stakes competition.

“I’ve been working him,” Bravo said. “The question is the distance. The talent is there, but the thing I like about him is he listens. He’s not a speedy horse that just goes to the front. He breaks, and he listens to the rider. You don’t know until Saturday. This will be a test for him.”

Stidham and Bravo also team up with apparently live chances in the Mineshaft Handicap with Cedartown, the 121-pound highweight, and in the Fair Grounds Handicap with Synchrony. Cedartown “has been tearing down the barn” since winning the Jan. 13 Louisiana Stakes, Bravo said, while Synchrony, unraced since May 27, has impressed both the Stidham barn and Bravo with his recent works.

“I worked him and was like, ‘Wow,’” Bravo said.

Even the weather is falling into place for Bravo. The high temperature Saturday is forecast to be 77 degrees, a welcome relief from some bone-chilling early mornings here.

“I was thinking coming down here it’d be like the second-warmest place in the country,” Bravo said. “They didn’t tell Mother Nature that.”