Three leading trainers the subjects of police doping probe according to reports

Leading trainers Frederic, Cedric and Charley Rossi were reportedly the subjects of a police investigation into the alleged doping of horses on Tuesday, according to various reports by French media.

According to respected online racing daily Jour de Galop, around ten police officers targeted the stables of Charley Rossi and his wife Jessica Marcialis in Calas, near Marseille.

Materials were seized and horses tested as the couple were taken into custody, while samples were also taken from recent runners trained by Charley's uncle Frederic and brother Cedric.

The raid was said to have lasted four hours and was conducted by the Service Central des Courses et Jeux (SCCJ), which specialises in gambling and racing offences. A total of 15 people, including vets, were said to have been taken in after searches of the training centre.

A report from Agence France-Presse alleged Frederic and Cedric, who trains Champion Stakes winner Sealiway, were also arrested.

It was reported that the raids were ordered by an investigating judge in Aix-en-Provence as part of an open judicial investigation following information obtained by the Marseille judicial police.

Frederic Rossi is a long-established trainer of with more than 20 years holding a licence, with the first of his two career Group 1s coming with Dream And Do in the Poule d'Essai des Pouliches – the French equivalent of the 1,000 Guineas – in 2020.

He also trained Sealiway to land the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere in October 2020 and sent the colt out to be second in this season's Prix du Jockey Club, before owners Haras de la Gousserie moved the son of Galiway to his nephew, Cedric Rossi.

Sealiway returned from a near four month break to finish fifth in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp before springing a 12-1 surprise in the Champion Stakes on British Champions Day.

Charley Rossi is also a Group 1-winning trainer, having landed the Prix Marcel Boussac with Tiger Tanaka at the Arc meeting in 2020.

A France Galop statement declined to comment on the details of the case but said they were "closely following the latest developments in the ongoing investigations, which were made public today".

It said: "France Galop is responsible for ensuring the regularity of racing and, in this context, it cooperates closely and on an ongoing basis with the Central Racing and Gaming Department of the French National Police.

"The fight against doping is an absolute priority for the racing industry, which devotes an annual budget of €10 million to it. The horse racing industry carries out nearly 30,000 anti-doping tests per year, many of them unannounced, in races, but also on horses in training, horses that come out of training and at stud farms."

How the French fight against doping has evolved

Various branches of the French police were also central to two of the most spectacular raids in recent memory, working in conjunction with France Galop to arrest Chantilly-based trainer Andrea Marcialis for a series of offences connected to anabolic steroids that included the infamous appearance of a syringe in the car park at Saint-Cloud racecourse.

While the criminal case – which involves nine separate defendants and ranges across doping, organised crime and forgery – has yet to be heard, France Galop stewards banned him until April 2025 for five different offences.

Jessica Marcialis is Andrea's sister but was never cited in any evidence connected to her brother's case in either the initial France Galop case or his losing appeal.

Leading jumps trainer Guy Cherel had both his Maisons-Laffitte yard and a stud farm raided by the Direction Centrale de Police Judiciare in September 2018. In October 2019 Daniela Mele was authorised to train from Cherel's former yard.

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