By Paul Kelso, Sports Correspondent
Royal Ascot is one of the highlights of the sporting and social calendars, five days of pomp, pageantry and world-class racing that attracts entrants and attention from around the world.
When the Queen led the Royal procession she was adhering to more than 300 years of tradition, but this year the meeting was particularly welcome after a scandalous spring for racing.
The build-up to the Flat season has been overshadowed by a series of scandals that have shaken faith in the sport.
In April, Mahmood Al Zarooni, leading trainer for the Godolphin stables, was banned for eight months after 22 horses at his yard were found to have been given performance-enhancing anabolic steroids.
A separate investigation is under way into a number of other trainers amid allegations that their horses were administered the same drug, stanozolol, in medication. One trainer, Gerard Butler, is already facing charges for this offence.
The scale of the Al Zarooni affair has caused genuine shock in racing circles and raised questions over the way the sport polices the use of drugs, particularly at international meetings like Ascot.
Mahmood Al Zarooni The Royal meeting has become a genuine international event, with entrants from America, Australia and South Africa a key part of its appeal. Overseas sprinters such as the unbeaten Australian great Black Caviar, one of the stars of last year's meeting, have become a fixture.
But each of those countries has different rules regarding performance-enhancing drugs to the UK, causing some to ask whether Ascot's famous acres constitute a level playing field.
The international runners are all tested on arrival in the UK and have to declare all medication they have used in the months leading up to the meeting.
The benefits of using drugs in training could linger long after the drugs have cleared a horse's system however, as the BHA has acknowledged by banning all the Al Zarooni horses for six months.
The leading overseas runners at this year's meeting all insist they are and have been drug-free, but some are frank about the need to use drugs in their domestic racing.
Barry Irwin, co-owner of Animal Kingdom, the Kentucky Derby winner who was set to be the star-turn of the opening day when it ran in the first race, the Queen Anne Stakes, told Sky News drugs are a regrettable fact of life in American racing.
He is campaigning to have Lasix, an anti-bleeding agent, banned in the USA. Until it is, he says, he has little choice but to use it.
Black Caviar's owners after receiving the trophy last year from the Queen "If we didn't use Lasix on older horses it would be like Usain Bolt putting his starting blocks five yards behind the others and I am not prepared to do that.
"But I am campaigning harder than anyone else to have the rules changed. The reason we are talking about Lasix is because it is the last drug standing. Once we get rid of that then we will be in better shape."
Danny O'Brien, who saddled Shamexpress in Tuesday's King's Stand Stakes, would like Australia to outlaw anabolic steroids, which can be used out-of-competition.
"I personally don't use them (steroids) on my horses and I tend to think that going forward our rules will fall into line with British rules," he said. "The use of them would be very minimal in Australia but I would prefer that they were not used at all."
Dr Peter Webbon, chief executive of the Animal Health Trust and Britain's leading equine vet, is in little doubt that anabolic steroids such as stanozolol, the Al Zarooni drug famously used by Ben Johnson, can confer a distinct advantage, but says their use is unethical and callous.
"I think we all agree that it is really unethical to expect a racehorse to compete other than on its natural merits," he said.
The British Horseracing Authority and Ascot Racecourse are confident that they have measures in place to ensure that racing is fair and honest at its showpiece event. And Paul Bittar, chief executive of the BHA, says Britain will campaign for reform of rules around the world.
"The rules we have in place are the high-water mark in world racing and we want to encourage others to adopt them," he said. "We are pretty confident that the procedures are stringent enough to give punters confidence."
Mr Bittar said the BHA's response to the Al Zarooni case has demonstrated that it is willing to tackle wrongdoing wherever it arises.
He said: "People can have confidence that the regulator has dealt with it without fear or favour, and I think with Godolphin we have shown we treat everyone the same under the rules, including charging the leading trainer in the country."
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