David Cottin | Horse Racing Free Tips

French National Hunt trainer and former champion jump jockey David Cottin faces a 12-month suspension as both trainer and owner after failing to observe the correct withdrawal times in the use of corticosteroids on four horses in his stable.

A veterinary officer from France's National Federation of Horseracing carried out an inspection at Cottin's yard in Lamorlaye, near Chantilly, on December 3, which revealed “several violations”, according to a statement released by France Galop on Monday. Of particular concern was the evidence of intra-articular (joint) injections, as well as injections between the vertebrae on four horses. The substance used, the corticosteroid Dexamethasone, has a withdrawal period of 14 days before the treated horse is allowed to resume racing.

The four horses, identified as Matilda Du Berlais (Fr), Duke Chop (Fr), Para (Fr) and Madara (Fr), have all subsequently been disqualified from the contests in which they raced within that 14-day period.

A treble winner of the Cravache d'Or d'obstacle (French champion jump jockeys' title), Cottin retired from race-riding in 2017 at the age of 27. He made a notably successful start to his training career, and enjoyed victory at the Cheltenham Festival in 2020 with Easysland (Fr).

Cottin was one of 21 people arrested from a number of different French stables, along with one person in Spain and another in Italy, in March 2022 in connection with alleged doping offences. He was subsequently released without charge.

Cottin has 14 days in which to lodge an appeal against his suspension.

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Two more people have been detained in the French doping case which began Tuesday morning with coordinated stable raids throughout the country, according to the Jour de Galop. In Thursday's edition, the JDG reports that one of the two new individuals was connected to steeplechase trainer Luc Gabeur, and the other in the Ile de France region which encompasses Paris. Two other individuals have been released.

Tuesday morning, raids were carried out throughout the country, with 21 arrested in France, one additional person in Italy and one in Spain. In Thursday's JDG, Piallat confirmed that two veterinarians, Diego Uson of Spain, and Bertrand Franquet were among those detained. The paper said that according to their sources, raids were carried out Tuesday morning at the stables of David Cottin in Lamorlaye, just outside Chantilly, and in La Teste in Luc Gabeur's stables, which were very similar in nature. Workers were asked to wait in the break room, their mobile phones confiscated, while the searches were carried out, the JDG said.

Wednesday morning, the horses returned to training as usual.

“We are trying to establish the roles of one to another, their relationships and their level of responsibility,” Stephane Piallate, the head of the central service of racing and gaming, told the JDG. “Some people have been revealed to probably have a more important role than we thought at the start, serving as some sort of regional relays distributing these doping products. We are at the heart of an important process of identifying and verifying the elements of proof. Working in connection with the expertise of horse racing laboratories, we are waiting for the results of the analyses.”

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