13/09/2019
Doping investigation – Asti palio: 21 sentences handed down, including for Siena Palio jockeys The Sentence handed down to 21 people, among them jockeys and owners of horses that have resulted positive to doping tests during the 2014 Asti Palio, has been postponed to 28 November. The reason for this is the request for the right of reply presented by the Public prosecutor Laura Deodato, following the not-guilty claim of the defendants. The matter is reported in La Voce di Asti, in an article about the 12 September Decision of the Piedmont Tribunal Judge Elisabetta Chinaglia. The accused, who risk sentences of between 2 months to two months and 20 days, are: Antonio Villella, Laura Coda Zambetta, Dino Pes, Giuseppe Piccinnu, Livio Vedele, Valter Pusceddu, Maurizio Farnetani, Mario Cottone, Andrea Farris, Patrizio Serra, Alessio Scaglione, Giuseppe Zedde, Enrico Bruschelli, Luigi Bruschelli, Sebastiano Murtas, Alessandro Chiti, Silvano Mulas, Gianluca Fais, Antonio Binello. These names mean nothing to most people, but are relatively well known on the ‘traditional events’ scene, of which the Siena Palio is the most famous. To cite a few examples, Dino Pes (popularly known as Velluto) has, between 2015 to the present year, in Siena, ridden once for Leocorno; six times Valter Pusceddu (Bighino); seven times Giuseppe Zedde (Gingillo); four times Enrico Bruschelli (Bellocchio); ten times Luigi Bruschelli (Trecciolino). Sebastiano Murtas (Grandine) has also raced in the Siena Palio several times, for example in 2016 when his horse (Reynard King) broke its short pastern bone in a bad fall. In that same year, for the sake of completeness, the winning horse was jockeyed by Jonathan Bartoletti, who in 2013, at Asti, whipped his horse Marnuthones so hard the horse, reacting in self defence reared, tripped on a rope, crashed to the ground, and died. Leaving aside the ramifications of this particular judicial case, it appears clear a practical, and rather less romantic, aspect of the fantasy of the ‘traditions’ linked to the palio: behind the scenes of the spectacle of the actual races and pageantry, there is a whole network of people involved (jockeys, trainers, owners) hired by the various groups and factions from all over Italy, so little or nothing to do with the sense of belonging to the history and roots of a single city or particular race, just the push to make money, which results in endangering the health and the very lives of the horses used in the proceedings. Jockeys accused in Asti: their participation from the 2015 siena Palio to today (date, ‘contrada’ and horse): PES DINO (Velluto) 2 July 2017 LEOCORNO - Quasimodo di Gallura PUSCEDDU VALTER (Bighino) 2 July 2015 CIVETTA - Roba e Macos 17 August 2015 NICCHIO - Qulpa di Gallura 2 July 2016 TARTUCA - Mocambo 16 August 2016 CIVETTA - Porto Alabe 16 August 2017 OCA - Renalzos 20 October 2018 LUPA - Schietta ZEDDE GIUSEPPE (Gingillo) 17 August 2015 TARTUCA - Querino 02 July 2016 OCA - Porto Alabe 16 August 2016 BRUCO - Smeraldo Nulese 16 August 2017 AQUILA - Rocco Ro 02 July 2018 VALDIMONTONE - Remistirio 16 August 2018 LUPA - Porto Alabe 20 October 2018 OCA - Sorighittu BRUSCHELLI ENRICO (Bellocchio) 17 August 2015 OCA - Quadrivia 02 July 2016 GIRAFFA - Sarbana 16 August 2016 NICCHIO - Mocambo 02 July 2017 PANTERA – Mississippi BRUSCHELLI LUIGI (Trecciolino) 02 July 2015 SELVA Quit Gold 17 August 2015 ISTRICE - Porto Alabe 02 July 2016 DRAGO - Phatos de Ozieri 16 August 2016 TARTUCA – Mississippi 02 July 2017 TARTUCA - Tornasol (did not run due to the horse refusing to enter the rope gates) 16 August 2017 BRUCO - S’Othieresu 02 July 2018 NICCHIO - Tabacco 16 August 2018 NICCHIO - Tale e Quale 02 July 2019 PANTERA - Sorighittu 16 August 2019 PANTERA - Tabacco MURTAS SEBASTIANO (Grandine) 16 August 2016 GIRAFFA - Reynard King (the horse suffered a bad accident: http://www.horseprotection.it/dett_articolo.asp?id_a=1078 ) 02 July 2017 TORRE - Querida de Marchesana 16 August 2018 BRUCO - Solu Tue Due CHITI ALESSANDRO, FAIS GIANLUCA and MULAS SILVANO, also Siena Palio jockeys, have not raced for a few years.