Andrea Marcialis (pictured), an Italian horse owner and trainer already serving a six month suspension, now faces being banned from the sport until April 2025 after France Galop found him guilty of offences including administering substances to horses in violation of the rules. In a Decision announced yesterday, it imposed four bans totalling three years and nine months. The offences include:

• Six horses administered with drugs without a veterinary prescription;
• Carrying a filled syringe into a racecourse for doping purposes;
• Administration of corticosteroids to four horses;
• Running a shadow training operation.

The first charge involving the six horses came to light after a specialist horse veterinary clinic in Gouvieux filed a complaint with police. Marcialis denied the charges, however France Galop found that he had run six horses when they had received injections of unidentified products between 48 and 72 hours before their races, a charge it labelled as ‘extremely serious and totally contrary to the rules’. It therefore sanctioned him with a 12 month ban.

The second charge arose following a training check at Marcialis’s stables on 1 October 2020. It found ‘Black Morning’ had been administered Betnesol (Betamethasone, a corticosteroid) on 1 July 2020; and that ‘La Gioiosa’, ‘Olympic Trophy’ and ‘Recuerdame’ had been administered Metacam, ignoring a pre-race prohibition for that substance of five days. 

France Galop ruled that Marcialis was guilty of ‘demonstrating a deliberate and recurring practice’ contrary to its rules, which prevents injections or administration of prohibited substances to declared runners. It therefore sanctioned him with a 12 month ban.

The third charge arose when a trainer observed Marcialis getting out of his car on 31 August 2020 at the Saint-Cloud racecourse with a 20ml syringe in his hand containing a ‘transparent liquid’, and proceeding to hide it in his trousers. Initial samples subsequently taken by the racecourse vet from the two horses Marcialis was running didn’t reveal any prohibited substances. However, laboratory analysis revealed the presence of Butyl Glucuronide in one of the horses.

Marcialis disputed the analysis and paid for the sample to be analysed at the Quantilab Laboratory. This confirmed the presence of Butyl Glucuronide. He argued that there were several discrepancies in a Report produced by Quantilab, including missing pages. Quantilab defended its analysis. Marcialis also cited evidence suggesting the possibility of false positives for Butyl Glucuronide, and disputed the level of detail in the eyewitness account as improbable. 

Marcialis also argued that he wasn’t in possession of a syringe with a pink needle containing a transparent liquid, as claimed by the other trainer. However France Galop found that analysis of his invoices revealed that he did repeatedly order syringes with pink needles, as well as a number of substances for administration to horses, some of which were clear in appearance. Given all of the above, it found he had breached rules prohibited administration of substances other than food to racehorses on race day, and sanctioned him with a 12 month ban.

The fourth charge arose when the national federation of race horses (FNCH) sent France Galop the results of an attempted control performed on a horse owned by Marcialis at the La Flèche Prize on 24 September 2020 at Lyon Parilly racecourse. It is understood that having been informed about the planned control by an employee, Marcialis instructed that the horse shouldn’t be tested before the race.

He argued that it was in an agitated state and testing would be dangerous, as it had already broken an employee’s shoulder after kicking him. A sample was collected from the horse after the race.

Marcialis had already been sanctioned with a €3,000 fine for similar behaviour during a similar sample collection attempt on 4 September 2018. He was fined €4,000 for a second offence.

As mentioned, Marcialis had been sanctioned with a six month ban on 18 December 2020. The fifth charge involved the transfer of 27 horses owned by Marcialis to Igor Endaltsev on 4 January 2021, shortly after Marcialis’s suspension came into force on 1 January. The alleged logic behind this move is that the horses would continue to be trained and raced by Endaltsev, and would be returned to Marcialis on expiration of the ban. After questions were asked, Endaltsev withdrew all horses owned by Marcialis from his roster on 5 January.

France Galop found Endaltsev guilty of making ‘fictitious statements’ in relation to this transfer of ownership. It found there was ‘no doubt that the said declarations were fictitious and that he was not the real owner of the horses in question’. He was sanctioned with a three month ban, plus a five year suspended sentence that can be implemented if he offends again.

France Galop found that Marcialis had used Endaltsev to ‘organise the continuity of his activity and the training of 27 horses’ without the knowledge of some of the horse owners. It therefore sanctioned him with a nine month ban. Marcialis has the option to appeal against each of the five sanctions.