SHEIKHMOHAMMED has been exonerated from any direct involvement in the Godolphin doping scandal.

The Emirati ruler and leading owner instructed the former Metropolitan Police chief commissionerLordStevenstoreview the damaging series of reports last year concerning his equestrian operations.

The British Horseracing Authority disqualified his trainer Mahmood Al Zarooni for eight years for injecting horses with anabolic steroids, while banned veterinary goods were seized from a Dubai Royal Air Wing flight at Stansted Airport by the UK Border Agency and the Veterinary Medicines Directorate.

Other unlicensed products were discovered at Moorley Farm in Newmarket, owned by the Sheikh’s Darley Stud operation.

The review, which was completed through the global advisory firm Quest, made a number of key findings.

It said the seizures at Stansted and Moorley Farm resulted from ’management failings, insufficient oversight, and complacency within the organisation’, but confirmed the BHA findings that Mahmood Al Zarooni acted alone in procuring and transporting drugs to the UK.

It also said the seized veterinary products are widely used and considered safe and not ‘‘illegal’’ despite being improperly imported to the UK.

The quantity of medicines seized at Stansted and Moorley Farm were not considered unusual given the size of the operation, and were a contingency supply, while there no link between the Al Zarooni case and the seizures.

The investigation has led to recommendations of stronger management, clearer accountability and better internal communication within the equestrian organisation, as well as the establishment of an internal compliance unit to operate independently within the operation.

KING OF THE PICTS, third in the Deloitte Novice Hurdle at Leopardstown on Sunday, is likely be preserved for the Crabbie’s Grand National meeting at Aintree in April.

Pat Shanahan’s five-year-old has done well since joining the County Kilkenny handler from Dessie Hughes’ yard last summer and turned in another fair effort at the weekend.

Shanahan is unlikely to risk King Of The Picts in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival and will instead chart a route towards Merseyside this spring.

He said: ‘‘He’s never run a bad race for me and I was very pleased with him on Sunday.

‘‘He’s been a good moneyspinner for the yard, but he’s only a small horse so I don’t think he’ll be tough enough for Cheltenham.

‘‘We’ll go to Liverpool instead.

I don’t know which race yet, but he goes very well fresh so we’ll leave him alone until then.’’