A race horse owned by Queen Elizabeth II that won the prestigious Gold Cup last year, has tested positive for a banned substance, Buckingham Palace has announced.
Estimate, a five-year-old mare trained by Michael Stoute, is one of five horses understood to have recorded a positive test for morphine.
The palace said they believed the morphine had come via consumption of a contaminated feed product.
The horse saw the Queen become the first reigning monarch to win Royal Ascot's Gold Cup. In this year's race, Estimate came second to the winner Leading Light.
The Queen has been informed following an announcement by the British Horseracing Authority last Thursday, according to John Warren, the Queen's Bloodstock and Racing Advisor.
"On Thursday 17 July the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) announced that a number of post-race samples, obtained from recent race meetings, had been found to indicate the presence of morphine, which is a prohibited substance on race days. Five horses, under the care of various trainers, were affected," Warren was quoted by The Guardian as saying.
"I can confirm that one of those horses was Estimate, the five-year-old mare trained by Sir Michael Stoute and owned by the Queen. Initial indications are that the positive test resulted from the consumption of a contaminated feed product," he said.
He said Stoute is "working closely" with the feed company involved to uncover how morphine may have contaminated the food prior before it was delivered to Estimate's stables.
It is not the first time the Queen has been connected with a drugs scandal in horse racing. In 2009 Nicky Henderson was fined 40,000 pounds and banned from making entries for three months after Moonlit Path, a horse in his care owned by the Queen, was injected with a banned blood-clotting agent on the day of a race.
If the test is confirmed by the BHA then Estimate will be disqualified from second place in this year's Gold Cup and the prize money of 80,625 pounds will automatically be forfeited.
