Regulators and racing authorities are making headway in their efforts to curb the sport's seemingly insatiable appetite for drugs, but when Big Brown and his rivals compete in the Belmont Stakes on Saturday, horse racing will still be in the midst of its steroid era.

Triple Crown hopeful Big Brown and at least one of his Belmont Stakes challengers will compete on anabolic steroids, as will, no doubt, dozens of other horses performing that day at Belmont Park.

Steroids are legal in 28 of the 38 states where horse racing is held, including the three states holding Triple Crown races, and their use is prevalent. Before banning the drugs in Pennsylvania, racing officials there tested 998 horses and found that 61.7 percent were positive for steroids and 17.3 percent had been treated with two steroids or more. That does not make horse racing any different from many sports, where the biggest, strongest, most focused athletes are the ones who most often succeed and earn the most money.

"They're performance-enhancing," said trainer Graham Motion, who said his Belmont starter Icabad Crane is not given steroids. "Isn't that why all the athletes use it? What do they do? They build up a horse's muscle tissue and make the animal stronger. To me that's performance enhancing. It amazes me that we're still even discussing it. They should have been banned a long time ago."

Among the nine trainers who are planning on running horses in the Belmont, only Rick Dutrow, the trainer of Big Brown, and Barclay Tagg, who trains Tale of Ekati, said their horses would race on steroids. Dallas Stewart, the trainer of Macho Again, said he had yet to decide whether his horse would receive them. Trainers Todd Pletcher and Nick Zito would not comment.

Steroids have been part of horse racing long before they became part of the sports world's lexicon. Hall of Fame trainer Elliott Burch, who began his career in 1955, said he first remembered hearing of their use with thoroughbreds in the mid-1960s.

Among other benefits, trainers found that steroids provided a boost for horses who were not eating well or were listless. Steroid proponents say the drug will help with minor problems like appetite but do little to improve a horse's performance.

"Steroids do have some benefits," said Dr. Gregory Bennett, the veterinarian who treats Big Brown. "We're always under pressure to keep these horses going and to try to make races. Without steroids, they'd lose some horses that can't keep up the pace and race every three weeks or every month. You have horses, particularly fillies, who won't eat for three, four days and they'll start to lose weight. If used judiciously, it helps keep a horse up to the training standards we set for them."

Bennett said it Big Brown's ability, not steroids like Winstrol, that has helped him dominate his competition and put him on the verge of becoming only the 12th horse to sweep the Triple Crown.

"This horse has a lot of natural ability and is a standout horse," he said. "He already has an innate ability, and the Winstrol does not alter his performance or anything like that. He's just a good horse."

While steroid use without a prescription has been illegal in humans in the United States, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration allows four steroids -- Winstrol, Equipose, Durabolin and testosterone -- to be administered to horses. According to Dutrow, Big Brown is treated once a month with Winstrol, the same anabolic steroid that the sprinter Ben Johnson tested positive for in 1988, causing him to be stripped of his gold medal in the Seoul Olympics.

Until this year, Iowa was the only state that banned steroid use in racehorses. Most other racing jurisdictions seemed to ignore the issue or, perhaps, decided steroids were not a problem. By giving his horses Winstrol, Dutrow is not breaking any rules.

"If they tell me you can no longer use them, I'll stop using them," Dutrow said.

The industry created the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium to draw up some common-sense responses to the problems of drugs in racing. Among the nonbinding recommendations it issued was a ban on steroids for racing. Under the proposal, the drug can still be given to a horse when it is not in competition, but must be withdrawn, in some cases, as many as 45 days days before a race.

The consortium's proposal called upon all states to have the new rules in place by Jan. 1, 2009. Nine states complied, issuing steroid bans before the recommended deadline.

Most of the remaining states, including Minnesota, are in the process of implementing restrictions on steroid use. The 10 states that have adopted or are adopting rules to regulate steroid use in racehorses are Washington, Arkansas, Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, California, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New York and Virginia.

The lone holdout could be Kentucky, a state that has a reputation for having the most lenient drug rules in racing. Racing officials there have formed a committee to look into the matter and have not offered any timetable for steroid restrictions.