Al Zarooni to saddle first runners on Thursday after eight-year drugs ban

Mahmood Al Zarooni will take his first steps back into racing on Thursday after eight years in the wilderness when Midnight Deal and Major Cinammon face the starter at Meydan, with the former Godolphin trainer hoping to "start again from zero".

Al Zarooni was banned in April 2013 at the conclusion of a BHA investigation into the use of two anabolic steroids at Godolphin's Moulton Paddocks yard. Although no horse tested positive in competition, 11 out of 45 horses – including the St Leger winner Encke and Certify, a leading ante-post fancy for the 2013 1,000 Guineas – returned positive samples for either ethylestrenol or stanozolol. Al Zarooni admitted that a further four horses had been treated with steroids.

At the time Al Zarooni apologised for what he characterised as a "catastrophic error", which he blamed on a misunderstanding of the rules of British racing, while Godolphin brought in former Metropolitan Police chief Lord Stevens to undertake a root-and-branch investigation into their operation with a view to "preventing any future systemic failures".