Aversa, Court of Naples North. In 2016, a trotter horse was found positive for testosterone at the Aversa racecourse, in Campania. He had arrived second in order of arrival.
For the offence, the sports justice had decided on a two-year suspension from racing for the horse. The anti-doping tests were positive both in the first and second analysis but, due to a defect in the form of transmission of the documents, the trainer was acquitted in sports justice and the horse, sold, ended up illegally slaughtered in Sperone, in the province of Avellino, Campania, in 2018.
The same trainer, shortly after, had another horse found positive for the same molecule, a metabolite of testosterone, a prohibited substance. The horse came first in the race referred. The two analyses confirmed the positivity and the horse was suspended for two years. The trainer in sports justice received a 4-month suspension and a 1.000 euro fine. The horse was demoted in the rankings.
The documents were forwarded to the Criminal Prosecutor's Office of Aversa, which sent the coach and owner back to trial for alleged doping/mistreatment and sports fraud.
Horse Angels had constituted itself as an injured party, defended by the lawyer Laura Mascolo of the Naples Bar Association.
The first degree sentence arrived today
The defendants, the owner and trainer of the horses, held responsible for the crimes attributed to them are sentenced (doping – pursuant to art. 544 ter, paragraph II and fraud in sports competition – pursuant to art. 1 L. 401/89 sports), each to a sentence of 1 year and 6 months of imprisonment (suspended sentence) and a €15.000,00 fine, in addition to the payment of legal costs.
Furthermore, they will have to compensate the patrimonial and non-patrimonial damages suffered by the civil party, the amount of which will be determined in a separate civil trial.
The Judge has reserved 60 days to file the full sentence, from reading which we will understand well all the reasons behind it.
The analyses performed on the biological samples of the horses, taken immediately after the races, gave positive results in the first and second analyses: one horse was found positive with a calculated Testosterone concentration of 253=8 ng/ml and the other mare was found positive with a calculated Testosterone concentration of 1.2=170,5 ng/ml.
The concentration is very high, considering that the permitted thresholds for the presence of testosterone in geldings (such as the horse in this race) are below 0.02 micrograms/ml, while that permitted for females is below 0.05 micrograms/ml.
However, the crime of doping, or mistreatment as provided for in the second paragraph of art. 544 ter, is a crime of danger and is configured when the use of "narcotic or prohibited substances is proven, or horses are subjected to treatments that cause damage to their health", without there even being a need for proof of the damage suffered by the animal.
Horse Angels declares itself satisfied with this first result obtained in a criminal case for doping in horse racing.
Article published on 27 January 2023 - 17:15
