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French Trainer Banned Until 2025, Faces Criminal Charges For Horse Doping

Italian-born, Group 1-winning Thoroughbred trainer Andrea Marcialis has been banned by France Galop until April of 2025 for three counts of horse doping and two counts of running a shadow training operation, reports the Racing Post. The trainer also faces criminal charges on counts of doping horses, organized crime, and forgery, with his actions spanning at least 31 races.

An incident at Saint-Cloud on Aug. 31, 2020 initiated the police investigation. Marcialis was reported to racecourse officials after being seen carrying a syringe from the car park. His two runners that day were tested before and after their races. One, Bosioh, returned a positive in the pre-race urine sample, but was negative post-race. France Galop still issued a ban for the incident, noting that “the facts being sufficient to establish and constitute an act of deliberate doping on a racecourse.”

The other two doping counts for which Marcialis received bans involved six horses who received injections without prior consultation from a vet and without prescription, and the administration of corticosteroids to four more horses within three days of them racing.

Marcialis' suspensions for shadow training operations included two separate instances. The first was for his role in running horses under the name of an 80-year-old trainer, Jean-Claude Napoli, with the help of his sister, Elisabetta, and the second was for shadow training under the name of Chantilly-based Russian licence holder, Igor Endaltsev.

Marcialis Facing More Than Four Years In Bans

French-based trainer Andrea Marcialis, already serving a six-month ban for allegedly operating a shadow training operation, is now likely to be on the sidelines until April 2025 after an investigation by France Galop stewards led to charges against the 35-year-old for various instances of medication violations and shadow operations, Racing Post reports. The cumulative ban for the four additional charges is three years and nine months. Marcialis picked up his initial ban in December of last year after stewards deemed he and his sister, Elisabetta Marcialis, had conspired to train and run horses in the name of trainer Jean-Claude Napoli.

France Galop stewards found that six horses in Marcialis's care received injections between 48 and 72 hours before racing without a prescription or prior consultation from a veterinarian. Another case involved the seizure of receipts from Marcialis's stable last October that indicated that four of Marcialis's horses had received corticosteroids three days out from racing. One of those horses, Black Morning (GB) (Due Diligence), emerged lame from a race at Saint-Cloud two days after being prescribed the steroid Betnesol with instruction to not run for two weeks thereafter.

On Aug. 31, Marcialis was reported to Saint-Cloud officials after being seen by another trainer in the car park with a 20ml syringe filled with a clear liquid in his hand. Both Marcialis's runners on the card were tested pre- and post-race; one was positive pre-race but negative post-race, however, stewards deemed there was enough evidence to “constitute an act of deliberate doping on a racecourse.”

Marcialis, additionally, picked up a nine-month ban for allegedly running a second shadow operation in Chantilly with license holder Igor Endaltsev, and he was fined €4,000 for refusing to comply with officials in testing a horse at Lyon-Parilly last September. It is unclear at this stage if Marcialis plans to appeal any of the bans.

Marcialis's biggest win came last June courtesy of Way To Paris (GB) (Champs Elysees {GB}) in the G1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud.

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‘I Wasn’t Sure If I Wanted To Ride Again’: Oisin Murphy Reveals Mental Struggles After Drug Positive

Champion jockey Oisin Murphy tested positive for metabolites of cocaine in July of 2020, later revealed that a sex partner was likely responsible for the positive test and was absolved of taking the drug himself, and eventually wound up with a three-month suspension from France-Galop which will end in March of 2021.

He retained his championship title in 2020, but this week Murphy candidly revealed to the Racing Post's My Sporting Mind podcast the struggles he endured mentally during the latter half of the season.

“I felt like the world had turned against me, over something I didn't really mean to happen,” Murphy said. “When I went to America [for the Breeders' Cup] I was hoping I'd done enough to win the jockeys' championship and by the time I rode in my last race, I wasn't sure if I wanted to ride again.”

Help came from fellow top jockey Frankie Dettori in the form of supportive messages, as well as the rest of his family and friends.

“I remember feeling the season was going to be defined one of two ways – I could fight on or let my season, my year, crumble to nothing,” Murphy summarized. “I knew I was going to get the ban, but I also knew that if I didn't win the jockeys' championship it would have been a season when I allowed everything that was going on around me to defeat me.”

Godolphin Named Leading French Owner in 2020

Godolphin has been named the leading owner in France for 2020 by France Galop. Their 77-strong French string, trained primarily by Andrew Fabre and Alex Pantall ran 281 times with 60 wins. They earned $2,235,078, just $1,707 more than White Birch Farm at €2,233,371. Godolphin's British string's French successes of over €600,000 are not included in these totals.

Peter Brant's White Birch Farm celebrated a win in the G1 Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe with Sottsass (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}) last season. Third on the list is His Highness The Aga Khan with 59 wins and €1.8 million in prizemoney, and those green and red silks would be on top if earnings plus owners' premiums were taken into account. Fourth is Wertheimer et Frere at €1.5 million.

The post Godolphin Named Leading French Owner in 2020 appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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