Trainer Fabrice Vermeulen loses court challenge to six-month ban ahead of Ganay

Trainer Fabrice Vermeulen has lost a civil court challenge to a six-month ban for falsifying ownership details, having fought a ruling from France Galop stewards dating back nearly three months.

On Thursday, owner Bernard Giraudon moved Vermeulen's stable star Pretty Tiger – one of six horses declared for Sunday's Group 1 Prix Ganay – across Chantilly to the boxes of Pia and Joakim Brandt under the threat that the governing body would begin cancelling declarations in Vermeulen's name.

The initial six-month ban – three months of which is suspended for five years – was handed down on February 2 and was then upheld by an appeal panel on April 14.

Vermeulen exercised his right to continue training while the appeal process unfolded, a situation which was then extended when he filed a motion with the Tribunal Administratif in Amiens.

That case was heard on Wednesday and the same day France Galop took the decision to begin voiding his runners from Thursday unless or until the court overturned the appeal hearing's decision to uphold Vermeulen's ban.

On Friday a judge turned down Vermeulen's request for a stay of the France Galop ruling.

Pretty Tiger: has moved from Fabrice Vermeulen's yard ahead of Sunday's Prix GanayCredit: Racing Post/Scott Burton

The winner of the Group 2 Prix Eugene Adam last July and the Prix Exbury at Saint-Cloud last month, Pretty Tiger is thus far the only horse that Giraudon has moved, with 16 of the 31 horses he has in training still registered to Vermeulen's care.

All of Vermeulen's declared runners at Marseille-Borely on Thursday evening were withdrawn by the stewards, including Giraudon's Le Queen and Pierre Le Grand.

The 43-year-old Vermeulen has continued to enjoy success while fighting his ban and remains second in the trainers' standings, his total prize-money of €886,650 placing him just behind Jean-Claude Rouget and in front of Andre Fabre. As many as 32 of his 46 winners have come since the initial ruling on February 2.

The case was first brought by France Galop after Vermeulen himself made a claim for unpaid bills against owner Laetitia Louis.

The evidence presented against him told a tale of false accounting and invoicing to conceal the shares in various horses held by his associate Jeremy Para, whose company SAS Le Marais was banned from ownership following a police investigation in 2020.

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