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From RP.....

Medical panel to consider Fallon case next month



by Jon Lees and Desmond Stoneham
.



FRANCE GALOP on Tuesday confirmed that Kieren Fallon's B test sample had tested positive for a prohibited substance and that arrangements were being made for a medical panel to consider the case in the new year.

Henri Pouret, the authority's head of rules, said France Galop stewards would determine how to deal with the jockey based on the findings of the three independent doctors who would comprise the panel.

But he advised against speculating on the length of sentence that could be imposed based on the experiences of jockeys Roberto Carlos Montenegro and Dean Gallagher, both of whom were banned after failing a second drugs test.

Fallon tested positive for a banned substance, reported to be cocaine, after Myboycharlie had wonthe Group 1 Prix Morny at Deauville in August. On Monday night his solicitor Christopher Stewart-Moore confirmed that the result of the B sample had been received.

On Tuesday, Pouret said: “I can confirm that sample B has tested positive in Hong Kong.A France Galop medical commission will now meet in mid-January. This consists of three independent doctors, not employed by France Galop, who will examine the case and come to conclusions.
“They will transfer the case to the stewards of France Galop, who will convene a meeting and make a decision. We never disclose the substance found; it is a prohibited substance.”

Fallon served a six-month suspension imposed by France Galop for testing positive for a metabolite of cocaine in June 2006.

Pouret said it would be unwise to compare his case with that of Montenegro, who was banned in October for 12 months after he had provided a second positive test for a banned substance at La Teste de Buch, near Bordeaux, on July 29, a decision that the stewards upheld on appeal.

Gallagher received a six-month ban in France in 2000, but his second drugs breach fell under British jurisdiction. The jump jockey was given an 18-month suspension after traces of cocaine were found in a urine sample at Newton Abbot in 2002.