Forevamo invades for Downs at Albuquerque Handicap

Forevamo won the Zia Park Championship in New Mexico last November, and is returning to the state for Saturday night’s $200,000 Downs at Albuquerque Handicap. He is part of a six-horse field for the 1 1/8-mile race, the meet’s premier offering for Thoroughbreds.

Forevamo invades from Lone Star Park. He was eighth in the Grade 3, $300,000 Steve Sexton Mile there in his last start April 28, and worked a bullet five-eighths in 1:01 there on July 15. Enrique Gomez has the mount from the rail for Brittlyn Stable and trainer Steve Asmussen.

Forevamo shares highweight honors with Pendleton, with both weighted at 121 pounds for the Downs at Albuquerque Handicap. Pendleton was second last out in the local prep, the $55,000 J.R. Malouff, a race in which he cut back from three turns to one and was edged late by Bokeelia Island, who also returns Saturday.

The complete field from the rail is Forevamo, Bokeelia Island, Oh So Regal, Pendleton, Sphene, and Lookin At Lee. The race goes as the seventh on a program that starts at 6:05 p.m. Mountain.

New Mexico reveals violations

The New Mexico Racing Commission has announced that a special two-week drug testing period on 507 samples collected from horses at Ruidoso Downs from July 4-July 18 produced 12 violations. The additional testing was performed, a press release stated, “amidst allegations that ongoing cheating continues in the Quarter Horse industry, specifically with newer types of drugs.”

Ruidoso is currently conducting a meet for Quarter Horses.

The violations included eight positives for ostarine, a human muscle mass enhancer unclassified by the Association of Racing Commissioners International, according to the New Mexico Racing Commission. There were also positives for the Class 3 drugs clenbuterol and formoterol, both bronchodilators, and the Class 4 drug dexamethasone.

The positives for ostarine and formoterol were among the first such cases for those drugs in New Mexico. The commission did not release violator names. Some of the samples tested were obtained out of competition, the release said.

There is a commission meeting Thursday.