If ever a sport needed an event to pass off without controversy, it is horse racing and its showpiece event, the Epsom Derby, this Saturday.

It is not just the fact that the race marks the 100th anniversary of one of the sport’s darkest hours, but the modern stain of corruption, doping and drugs will see Epsom under even more scrutiny than usual this year.

Indeed, the build-up to this year’s Derby has seen horse racing stung by a series of events that would not look out of place in a Dick Francis novel.

It is hard to work out which is most damaging – the corruption scandal that has led to Irish jockey Eddie Ahern receiving a 10-year ban, or the administering of performance- enhancing steroids to 15 horses that has seen Godolphin trainer Mahmood al-Zarooni suspended for eight years.

At least Frankie Dettori’s drug abuse was with himself, but the build-up to Epsom, at the time of writing, is being dominated by the will-he, won’t-he ride saga as the French authorities delay giving horse racing’s most famous jockey his licence back after serving a six-month ban for using cocaine.

Your Local Guardian: Emily Davison ran out in front of King George V's horse at the 1913 Epsom Derby

The moment of history: Emily Davison writes herself into the Epsom Derby history books

Perhaps a sport so dominated by gambling is never going to be whiter than white (or a little too white in Dettori’s case) and the average punters putting their tenners on the Tote on Saturday probably could not care less about the sport’s modern day woes.

Certainly, today's events won’t be talked about in a century in the way that the death of suffragette Emily Davison in 1913 has captured the headlines this week.

Clare Balding’s excellent Channel 4 documentary on the subject this week suggested that fresh evidence pointed away from the long-held popular view that Davison had committed suicide by running in front of King George V’s horse.

Clearly, Epsom has to pay due respect to the events of a century ago but they also have to be careful not to condone Davison’s actions.

After all, last year’s Boat Race intruder Trenton Oldfield showed the danger and disruption that can be caused by an invader of a major event. The incidents of a century ago will never be forgotten, they are a part of British history, but let’s hope this weekend it is the horses that make the headlines.