The fall is as dazzling as the ascent.
On March 11, the court of Senlis (Oise) indicted Andrea Marcialis, trainer of racehorses at the height of his glory, as well as eight other people.
The Italian is suspected of having injected doping products into his horses before the races, with the help of veterinarians.
According to the Senlis public prosecutor, Jean-Baptiste Bladier, 31 races are concerned by "an organized system of doping of galloping horses".
Without waiting for the outcome of the judicial section, the ax of France Galop - the company that organizes the races - had fallen the day before: she pronounced against the Italian a ban on exercising his profession of public trainer until April 5, 2025. A real shock for a city like Chantilly (Oise), 10,000 inhabitants and the leading training center in Europe with 3,000 racehorses in training, which itself calls itself the “horse capital”.
The course of Andrea Marcialis, a former smiling jockey with a laughing eye, was however flawless until then.
Assistant to his father Antonio, head of the family business which also includes his uncle Mario and his sister Elisabetta, Andrea left Italy for the Oise in 2016. “I love my country and Milan.
San Siro is the most beautiful racecourse in the world, he told Jour de Galop at the time.
But the future of galloping in Italy is not bright.
So I packed my bags, heading for Chantilly ”, one hour from Paris.
His father and uncle urged him to "take the plunge".
“The Marcialis-France branch is an additional asset for our Italian owners who wish to venture beyond the border.
"
An ascent at high speed
So he landed in this wealthy town in the heart of the forest, where everything was designed for equestrianism, with “two or three horses”.
Fifteen days later, the two starters he presented at Maisons-Laffite (Yvelines) won out and secured him his first victories in his adopted country.
The following year, he took 117th place in the ranking of trainers in France, with 236,000 euros in race earnings for 79 starters (23 horses).
Better still, in 2018, thanks to Way To Paris, his lucky charm with which he started and one of the very first horses he took in his luggage, Andrea Marcialis even participated that year in the prestigious Prix de the Arc de Triomphe.
The rise continues at high speed: more and more owners trust it.
Until reaching 6th place in the coaching rankings last year.
Even the health crisis, which interrupted the races during the two months of the first confinement, did not prevent him from increasing his earnings: nearly 2 million euros!
"Its results have enabled it to attract more and more owners"
A stunning success.
Too much for some specialists in this small environment, who did not wait for the affair to explode to get an idea.
“Obviously everyone suspected, but no one will say it!
" How? 'Or' What ?
"A horse that looks up, does nothing and when it arrives home, it becomes a plane, it shows when you know the races", asserts Monique, who has been in the industry for decades.
On condition of anonymity, an owner also confides that he gave instructions not to "run [his] horses when those of Marcialis were in the race".
"The increase in the number of starters is revealing: as he had to put the dose (sic), his results allowed him to attract more and more owners and increase his workforce", analyzes a trainer installed on the Calas training center, where Marcialis had placed horses
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Always very outgoing and good at communicating, Andrea Marcialis prefers to talk and praise hard work.
The thunderclap in the blue sky of his career erupted at the end of last summer.
Friendly and good communicator Andrea Marcialis hid his game well… Scoopdyga / Valentin Desbriel
August 31, 2020, race day at the Saint-Cloud racecourse (Hauts-de-Seine).
Around 1 p.m., a trainer catches him leaving his car with a syringe in his hand, which he then hides in his pants.
At least that's what the witness told the race director.
Two horses trained by Marcialis are declared starters that day.
France Galop immediately sends her veterinarian for an anti-doping control, before the race.
In the urine of the foal Bosioh, the laboratory detects butanol, however prohibited.
Bosioh won first place in the Montgeron Prize that day.
And in the samples taken after the race, no trace of the substance known for its rapid elimination.
Before the racing jurisdiction, Marcialis cannot explain these analysis results and “thinks that it is his attending vets who had to carry out treatments”.
However, the interested parties deny it.
He also supposes that the presence of butanol could result from a chemical reaction linked to… the use of hydroalcoholic gel.
As for the coach who denounced him, the Italian explains that there is a conflict of interest: according to him, his tormentor - a member of the team that trained Bosioh before him, without much success - would have made statements falsehoods.
In the crosshairs
Marcialis is now in the crosshairs of France Galop on one side, and the gaming police on the other.
On September 24, the race organizer ordered an unexpected check on one of his horses, before the start of the Prix de la Flèche for which he was the favorite.
Annoyed to disturb his champion before the competition, he reluctantly accepts.
But "for his safety", there is no question of the veterinarian staying in the box after the blood test on this stallion he says "difficult".
He will have to wait outside, door closed, that he deigns to urinate.
Only, as soon as the vet enters, the horse hangs: impossible to carry out these analyzes.
To the commissioners of France Galop who opened an investigation for this obstacle, Marcialis's lawyer declares that his client considers himself "envied, jealous and hated".
And list the controls it has been subject to.
"We cut its wings," he laments.
A week later, they arrive at the premises of Andrea Marcialis.
The same day, a search was carried out by the gaming police, at the request of the Senlis prosecutor's office.
They get their hands on orders indicating that an infiltration was performed on a horse two days before a race, and injections on three others.
However, this is strictly prohibited by the Racing Code.
But for Marcialis, for the first horse, it was a date error on the part of the veterinarian.
Moreover, "the owner of Black Morning is a veterinarian (
Pietro Sinistri is an associate of the clinic, but not a veterinarian, editor's note
) and it is he who made the decisions relating to the health of the mare", he assures us. .
And it was his partner, Dr. Canonici, who performed the infiltration.
Neither one disputes.
But the ordinance in question clearly specifies "the need to respect a waiting period of 15 days to run".
Breaches of the Racing Code and of ethics
However, with regard to the Racing Code, the trainer is responsible in the event of a positive test: he is “under the obligation to protect the horse in his care and to guarantee it as appropriate against any infringement.
It is up to him (...) to ensure by all checks and biological analyzes that this horse does not contain a prohibited substance in its tissues, bodily fluids, excretions or any other part of its body.
"
As for the injections on the other three horses, they would have been prescribed in advance to be carried out just "after the race to help their recovery", and not before, argues Marcialis.
A totally illegal practice, contrary to ethics, confirms the advice of the Order of Veterinarians.
At the International Horse Clinic in Gouvieux (Oise), the owners take a closer look at the acts billed to this large client.
For six horses, mention is made of infiltration, without specifying the product used.
At the beginning of November, they turned to France Galop.
They "are worried about the conformity of the practices" of two veterinarians employed by the establishment which they bought the previous year.
Namely, "infiltrations (...) carried out without prescription and by means of unidentified products and provided by the trainer".
Two licensed veterinarians
The response of the Council of the Order, consulted, was not long in coming: "the practice of only issuing an invoice without details of the act does not comply with the public health code and consequently the veterinary code of ethics ”.
A week later, the two veterinarians concerned are dismissed.
“There are rules to be respected, but they did the care, the invoices but no prescriptions,” comments Pietro Sinistri.
And we learn that the horse is running two days later.
If we do not file a complaint, we will say that we are responsible!
"
For Marcialis, the Clinic's approach is a maneuver.
He ensures that he kept relaunching it to obtain the missing prescriptions and that the new managers thus “understood that the clinic had made serious management errors” and “to cover themselves, preferred to divert the errors onto the coach. », Says his lawyer.
"Andréa Marcialis needed the advice of these vets to know the nature of the products, their release date, and the dates of doping controls," said a source familiar with the matter.
He would thus have set up "a real doping structure" with the complicity of these two Italian veterinarians.
Despite their denials, the two women (whom we were unable to reach) were indicted and received, as a precaution, a ban on practicing in the racing world.
"It is rare that such a rapid and severe sanction is taken", notes a professional.
A "shock in the middle"
A warning shot in a world where only 67 samples were positive out of the 29,576 analyzed in 2018 (0.23%).
"It is a completely isolated case of figure, it is shocking and justice will pass, underlines Eric Woerth, deputy of Oise and former mayor of Chantilly.
The races in France are clean, this type of affair should not cast shame, ”he insists, while recalling that“ the presumption of innocence applies to everyone ”.
"These police custody, it was still a shock in the community and in a small town like Chantilly", comments the regional council of the order of veterinarians of Hauts-de-France, cautious at the idea of evoking “The start of a very sensitive affair”.
“It's the middle of the races, there are the winnings, it bounces on deceptions… It's still huge!
», Says a stunned vet.
If it was not seized of a complaint, contrary to what is mentioned in the report of the decisions of the jurisdictional bodies of France Galop, the Order informed the prosecutor of his intention to become a civil party in such a way. to have access to the file ”.
“We do it systematically when veterinarians are concerned,” explains Florence Dirn, its president.
If the file reveals violations of the code of ethics or any other to which veterinarians must comply, "we will file a complaint and sanctions will be taken".
"He wanted to go too high, too fast"
Under a ban to practice for the next four years, Andrea Marcialis appealed to France Galop who must study his case "in the next few days".
In the meantime, his clients have entrusted their horses to other trainers.
Which are not all happy to get them back.
"I don't know how he got the results with this horse," breaths one of them.
Me, I am very annoyed: its owner entrusts it to me but there is nothing to gain from it!
"
"He was an excellent coach, but he wanted to go too high, too fast," analyzes a source close to the matter.
An impatience which earned him to be imprisoned at the end of his police custody, under the revocation of a suspended sentence pronounced in January for ... crime of high speed.
