Zara Phillips, the Queen's granddaughter, won gold for Great Britain at the World Equestrian Games in Aachen yesterday on her horse Toytown.
Her close friends and family have a history of sporting success. Her mother, the Princess Royal, became the European champion in 1971, and her father, Mark Phillips (who is now the coach of the United States team), won a team gold in Munich in 1972 and is a four-times winner of Badminton and her boyfriend, Mike Tindall, plays for the England rugby team and won the World Cup in 2003 when they beat Australia in the Final.
As she jumped the last fence and as she collected her gold medal, she shed a tear for her close friend and fellow showjumper Sherelle Duke, who was killed last Sunday when her horse fell on top of her during a competition.
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The Times August 28, 2006
Equestrianism: Phillips fulfils the destiny of one born to succeed
From Jenny MacArthur in Aachen, Germany
IF ANY rider was predestined to succeed in the sport of eventing it is Zara Phillips, who won the individual gold in the three-day competition at the World Equestrian Games in Aachen yesterday.
Both her parents competed in the Olympic Games. Her mother, the Princess Royal, became the European champion in 1971, and her father, Mark Phillips, won a team gold in Munich in 1972 and is a four-times winner of Badminton.
“I was so young when they first put me on a pony I can’t remember exactly how old I was,” Zara said. She can remember that the pony was called Smokey and that he had “a mind of his own”. Early instruction came from both parents and from the local Beaufort Pony Club during her holidays from Gordonstoun.
However much talent a potential top rider has, it must be harnessed to the right horse. Toytown, a chestnut gelding whose exact breeding is unknown, was spotted by Mark Phillips when his former rider, Meryl Winter, went to him for a lesson in 1999. “I told her that if she ever thought of selling him I would be interested,” Phillips said. Winter decided to sell her “cross-country machine” a few months later.
It was not an instant partnership. Winter was right about the cross-country but both the dressage and showjumping had to be worked on. At the Windsor Three-Day-Event in 2001, Phillips was in the lead going into the final showjumping phase but dropped to 33rd after six fences down, prompting a sharp exchange between mother and daughter.
Intensive instruction at Gatcombe from her father, who has trained the United States three-day event team for ten years, improved the showjumping while her dressage reached a new level under the tutelage of Bettina Hoy, the Germany event rider.
By 2002 the hard work was paying dividends. Phillips’s first significant success came in the Under-25 Championship at Bramham Horse Trials. In September she won the individual silver at the Young Riders European Championships in Austria. But it was her debut at Burghley in 2003, at the age of 22, that announced her arrival at the forefront of the sport.
Competing at this level for the first time — over a cross-country course that had even the most experienced riders scratching their heads — Phillips found herself in the lead at the end of the cross-country. Although one fence down in the showjumping dropped her to second place — allowing Pippa Funnell, the rider Zara most admires, to win the Rolex Grand Prix — it was still a sensational performance.
Sponsorship in the form of the spread-betting company Cantor Index (now part of BGC Partners and Associates) followed swiftly on this success. Although there was disappointment the next year when an injury sustained in the field put Toytown out of the Athens Olympic Games, the sponsors were rewarded beyond their expectations in 2005 when, as a late replacement for Funnell in the team, Phillips won team and individual gold medals at the European Championships in Blenheim.
“I felt I was in a dream — it seemed surreal to be in the lead at my first European Championships,” Phillips said. The last to go in the showjumping, she fulfilled expectations with a clear round watched by her proud parents. “I couldn’t have asked for more, I’ve never seen her ride better,” her father said.
They little dreamt that such a scene would unfold in Aachen. Both parents, together with Phillips’s boyfriend, Mike Tindall, the England rugby player, had watched her cross-country performance in which she finished inside the time on Saturday.
Phillips, dismissive as ever of her achievements, described it as “not very pretty at times”. Her mother disagreed. “You did a fabulous job,” she said as she greeted Zara at the end of the round that put the British team in contention for the team silver medal and Zara in the lead for the individual gold.
Yesterday Phillips had to manage without the help of her father — his role as trainer of the United States team barring him from helping her under International Equestrian Federation (FEI) rules. But Kenneth Clawson, the British team trainer, had been on several trips to Gatcombe to watch Phillips’s training methods — knowing that he would have to take on the role in Aachen.
Toytown will still be young enough, at 15, for the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008. Zara, who lives in a cottage on the Gatcombe Estate, is also campaigning several young horses and two other advanced horses. Her sponsorship covers the cost of keeping her eight horses and pays for her state-of-the-art horsebox. With this set-up in place — and her father keeping a wily eye out for “the next Toytown” — Phillips looks set to keep her place in the top echelons of the sport.
thetimesonline.co.uk
-------------------------------------------------
Not many national sporting teams can say they have a queen's granddaughter playing for them.
********************************************************************************
Zara's triumph tinged with sorrow over friend's death
27th August 2006
As she collected her gold medal, she shed a tear for her close friend and fellow showjumper Sherelle Duke, who was killed last Sunday when her horse fell on top of her during a competition.
It was the moment when Zara Phillips triumphantly shook off her royal rebel tag.
As she punched the air after winning gold at the World Equestrian Games, the Queen's granddaughter showed she had finally come of age.
The 25-year-old came from behind to capture the top prize in Germany and land the three-day eventing title which eluded her mother the Princess Royal.
But the victory was tinged with sadness for Zara, who burst into floods of tears after clearing the final fence. She dedicated her success to a close friend and fellow showjumper Sherelle Duke, who was killed last Sunday when her horse fell on top of her during a competition.
Zara and the British team competed wearing red-and-white ribbons - Miss Duke's cross-country colours - as a mark of respect.
"I went out today to do it for a friend of mine, who died a week ago today, to try and get her a gold medal," said Zara. "And I was just so relieved that I had managed to give that to her because we did not manage to go over and say goodbye."
Miss Duke, 28, from County Armagh, died after hitting a fence at the Brockenhurst one-day event in Hampshire. Zara was unable to attend her funeral on Friday because she was riding in Germany.
At Zara's side during her triumph were her parents Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips, as well as her boyfriend, England rugby star Mike Tindall. The Queen was said to be 'glued' to her TV set at Balmoral, where she watched the event live on a satellite channel. Despite Zara's reputation for being fiercely independent, her family played a crucial part in her success.
Her mother, who became European Champion in 1971 but was never selected for the World Championships, has been her staunchest supporter while her father, who won an Olympic gold in 1972, has taken a particularly keen interest in her training - despite recently being appointed official coach to her rivals in the U.S. team.
He recently went so far as to claim Zara's winning streak is down to the fact that his headstrong daughter had 'finally' started to listen to him.
Another key player in Team Zara is her stepmother Sandy, who coaches her in dressage. The 54-year-old American heiress, now a British citizen, married Captain Phillips in 1997 following his amicable divorce from the Princess Royal. Last but not least is Tindall, who is expected to marry Zara in the next few years.
Over recent months the down-to-earth Yorkshireman has devised a strict fitness programme for her to follow which includes running, weights and using a cross-trainer in the cottage they now share on Princess Anne's Gatcombe Park estate. Despite Tindall's presence yesterday, Zara had eyes only for her 12-year-old horse, Toytown, which she hugged and kissed with tears streaming down her cheeks.
The chestnut gelding, with a distinctive white blaze, was picked up by Captain Phillips for just £400 six years ago after he spotted him at a Pony Club event.
Since then Zara has worked hard to turn Toytown, or Noddy as she calls him, into one of the finest horses in the sport. He is so devoted to his young mistress that he kicks his stable door down if she doesn't go in to see him first thing every morning.
"My parents and I jointly bought Toytown and from the moment I sat on him, I knew he was special," she said recently.
"Mind you, it's taken a great deal of hard work to have got him to the stage he is at now."
Despite her image as a party girl, Zara is used to hard work. "People don't believe me when I go on about it but they should come down to the stables at 6am and help me muck up before riding for seven or eight hours," she insists.
Her groom, Catherine Owens, said: "People think it must be easy for her but she works unbelievably hard, sometimes 14 hours a day. She's very driven, very competitive and very hard on herself. It comes from her mother and father and, because she has been in the public eye all her life, she feels she has to please everyone."
Zara earned her royal rebel tag when she had her tongue pierced and had a succession of public screaming matches with her boyfriend, jockey Richard Johnson.
But her new-found passion for her sport and steady relationship with Tindall has changed all that.
Thanks to her win - she is only the fourth British rider to claim the World Champion title - Zara is now one step nearer to her ambition of competing in the 2008 Olympics and the odds have been slashed against her following in her mother's hoofprints to be named BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
Comments from Daily Mail readers.
Here's a sample of the latest comments published.
-----------------------------------------------
Can a commoner say "nice one girl". If I can - nice one girl!
- G Brown, Manchester, UK
------------------------------------
Well done Zara. Carry on the good work. Your parents must be thrilled and what marvellous news for your grandparents too. The icing on the cake for the Queen.
- At, Newcastle upon Tyne
-----------------------------------
A credit to her family.
- Billy, Norfolk, UK
dailymail.co.uk
Her close friends and family have a history of sporting success. Her mother, the Princess Royal, became the European champion in 1971, and her father, Mark Phillips (who is now the coach of the United States team), won a team gold in Munich in 1972 and is a four-times winner of Badminton and her boyfriend, Mike Tindall, plays for the England rugby team and won the World Cup in 2003 when they beat Australia in the Final.
As she jumped the last fence and as she collected her gold medal, she shed a tear for her close friend and fellow showjumper Sherelle Duke, who was killed last Sunday when her horse fell on top of her during a competition.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Times August 28, 2006
Equestrianism: Phillips fulfils the destiny of one born to succeed
From Jenny MacArthur in Aachen, Germany
IF ANY rider was predestined to succeed in the sport of eventing it is Zara Phillips, who won the individual gold in the three-day competition at the World Equestrian Games in Aachen yesterday.
Both her parents competed in the Olympic Games. Her mother, the Princess Royal, became the European champion in 1971, and her father, Mark Phillips, won a team gold in Munich in 1972 and is a four-times winner of Badminton.
“I was so young when they first put me on a pony I can’t remember exactly how old I was,” Zara said. She can remember that the pony was called Smokey and that he had “a mind of his own”. Early instruction came from both parents and from the local Beaufort Pony Club during her holidays from Gordonstoun.
However much talent a potential top rider has, it must be harnessed to the right horse. Toytown, a chestnut gelding whose exact breeding is unknown, was spotted by Mark Phillips when his former rider, Meryl Winter, went to him for a lesson in 1999. “I told her that if she ever thought of selling him I would be interested,” Phillips said. Winter decided to sell her “cross-country machine” a few months later.
It was not an instant partnership. Winter was right about the cross-country but both the dressage and showjumping had to be worked on. At the Windsor Three-Day-Event in 2001, Phillips was in the lead going into the final showjumping phase but dropped to 33rd after six fences down, prompting a sharp exchange between mother and daughter.
Intensive instruction at Gatcombe from her father, who has trained the United States three-day event team for ten years, improved the showjumping while her dressage reached a new level under the tutelage of Bettina Hoy, the Germany event rider.
By 2002 the hard work was paying dividends. Phillips’s first significant success came in the Under-25 Championship at Bramham Horse Trials. In September she won the individual silver at the Young Riders European Championships in Austria. But it was her debut at Burghley in 2003, at the age of 22, that announced her arrival at the forefront of the sport.
Competing at this level for the first time — over a cross-country course that had even the most experienced riders scratching their heads — Phillips found herself in the lead at the end of the cross-country. Although one fence down in the showjumping dropped her to second place — allowing Pippa Funnell, the rider Zara most admires, to win the Rolex Grand Prix — it was still a sensational performance.
Sponsorship in the form of the spread-betting company Cantor Index (now part of BGC Partners and Associates) followed swiftly on this success. Although there was disappointment the next year when an injury sustained in the field put Toytown out of the Athens Olympic Games, the sponsors were rewarded beyond their expectations in 2005 when, as a late replacement for Funnell in the team, Phillips won team and individual gold medals at the European Championships in Blenheim.
“I felt I was in a dream — it seemed surreal to be in the lead at my first European Championships,” Phillips said. The last to go in the showjumping, she fulfilled expectations with a clear round watched by her proud parents. “I couldn’t have asked for more, I’ve never seen her ride better,” her father said.
They little dreamt that such a scene would unfold in Aachen. Both parents, together with Phillips’s boyfriend, Mike Tindall, the England rugby player, had watched her cross-country performance in which she finished inside the time on Saturday.
Phillips, dismissive as ever of her achievements, described it as “not very pretty at times”. Her mother disagreed. “You did a fabulous job,” she said as she greeted Zara at the end of the round that put the British team in contention for the team silver medal and Zara in the lead for the individual gold.
Yesterday Phillips had to manage without the help of her father — his role as trainer of the United States team barring him from helping her under International Equestrian Federation (FEI) rules. But Kenneth Clawson, the British team trainer, had been on several trips to Gatcombe to watch Phillips’s training methods — knowing that he would have to take on the role in Aachen.
Toytown will still be young enough, at 15, for the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008. Zara, who lives in a cottage on the Gatcombe Estate, is also campaigning several young horses and two other advanced horses. Her sponsorship covers the cost of keeping her eight horses and pays for her state-of-the-art horsebox. With this set-up in place — and her father keeping a wily eye out for “the next Toytown” — Phillips looks set to keep her place in the top echelons of the sport.
thetimesonline.co.uk
-------------------------------------------------
Not many national sporting teams can say they have a queen's granddaughter playing for them.
********************************************************************************
Zara's triumph tinged with sorrow over friend's death
27th August 2006
As she collected her gold medal, she shed a tear for her close friend and fellow showjumper Sherelle Duke, who was killed last Sunday when her horse fell on top of her during a competition.
It was the moment when Zara Phillips triumphantly shook off her royal rebel tag.
As she punched the air after winning gold at the World Equestrian Games, the Queen's granddaughter showed she had finally come of age.
The 25-year-old came from behind to capture the top prize in Germany and land the three-day eventing title which eluded her mother the Princess Royal.
But the victory was tinged with sadness for Zara, who burst into floods of tears after clearing the final fence. She dedicated her success to a close friend and fellow showjumper Sherelle Duke, who was killed last Sunday when her horse fell on top of her during a competition.
Zara and the British team competed wearing red-and-white ribbons - Miss Duke's cross-country colours - as a mark of respect.
"I went out today to do it for a friend of mine, who died a week ago today, to try and get her a gold medal," said Zara. "And I was just so relieved that I had managed to give that to her because we did not manage to go over and say goodbye."
Miss Duke, 28, from County Armagh, died after hitting a fence at the Brockenhurst one-day event in Hampshire. Zara was unable to attend her funeral on Friday because she was riding in Germany.
At Zara's side during her triumph were her parents Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips, as well as her boyfriend, England rugby star Mike Tindall. The Queen was said to be 'glued' to her TV set at Balmoral, where she watched the event live on a satellite channel. Despite Zara's reputation for being fiercely independent, her family played a crucial part in her success.
Her mother, who became European Champion in 1971 but was never selected for the World Championships, has been her staunchest supporter while her father, who won an Olympic gold in 1972, has taken a particularly keen interest in her training - despite recently being appointed official coach to her rivals in the U.S. team.
He recently went so far as to claim Zara's winning streak is down to the fact that his headstrong daughter had 'finally' started to listen to him.
Another key player in Team Zara is her stepmother Sandy, who coaches her in dressage. The 54-year-old American heiress, now a British citizen, married Captain Phillips in 1997 following his amicable divorce from the Princess Royal. Last but not least is Tindall, who is expected to marry Zara in the next few years.
Over recent months the down-to-earth Yorkshireman has devised a strict fitness programme for her to follow which includes running, weights and using a cross-trainer in the cottage they now share on Princess Anne's Gatcombe Park estate. Despite Tindall's presence yesterday, Zara had eyes only for her 12-year-old horse, Toytown, which she hugged and kissed with tears streaming down her cheeks.
The chestnut gelding, with a distinctive white blaze, was picked up by Captain Phillips for just £400 six years ago after he spotted him at a Pony Club event.
Since then Zara has worked hard to turn Toytown, or Noddy as she calls him, into one of the finest horses in the sport. He is so devoted to his young mistress that he kicks his stable door down if she doesn't go in to see him first thing every morning.
"My parents and I jointly bought Toytown and from the moment I sat on him, I knew he was special," she said recently.
"Mind you, it's taken a great deal of hard work to have got him to the stage he is at now."
Despite her image as a party girl, Zara is used to hard work. "People don't believe me when I go on about it but they should come down to the stables at 6am and help me muck up before riding for seven or eight hours," she insists.
Her groom, Catherine Owens, said: "People think it must be easy for her but she works unbelievably hard, sometimes 14 hours a day. She's very driven, very competitive and very hard on herself. It comes from her mother and father and, because she has been in the public eye all her life, she feels she has to please everyone."
Zara earned her royal rebel tag when she had her tongue pierced and had a succession of public screaming matches with her boyfriend, jockey Richard Johnson.
But her new-found passion for her sport and steady relationship with Tindall has changed all that.
Thanks to her win - she is only the fourth British rider to claim the World Champion title - Zara is now one step nearer to her ambition of competing in the 2008 Olympics and the odds have been slashed against her following in her mother's hoofprints to be named BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
Comments from Daily Mail readers.
Here's a sample of the latest comments published.
-----------------------------------------------
Can a commoner say "nice one girl". If I can - nice one girl!
- G Brown, Manchester, UK
------------------------------------
Well done Zara. Carry on the good work. Your parents must be thrilled and what marvellous news for your grandparents too. The icing on the cake for the Queen.
- At, Newcastle upon Tyne
-----------------------------------
A credit to her family.
- Billy, Norfolk, UK
dailymail.co.uk