Tuesday, December 21, 2010
She is a brisk sort of girl, and a great believer in just gritting her teeth and getting on with things. But this weekend, as she prepares to compete in an eventing World Cup qualifier in France, Zara Phillips is beset by crises.
Firstly, her beloved and extraordinary horse Toytown has a bruised foot and has had to be pulled out of the competition. Given his age - he is 15 - and that the Beijing Olympics are looming, it is not at all the preparation she was hoping for.
She has trained him with infinite care, and yet she still faces her worst fear - that he will be injured, as he was before the Athens Olympics four years ago. This weekend she is competing in Fontainebleau with two of her other horses instead.
The second crisis - and although she is "deeply" in love it is only a secondary priority - is that her lover Mike Tindall faces disqualification from driving after failing a roadside breath test.
Tindall, 29, a rugby player who was one of England's World Cupwinners in 2003, was found to be over the limit a day after a champagne-soaked party at the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
He and Zara went to the private Weighing In Party for jockeys following the racing. It was evidently an extremely jolly affair - some fellow drinkers in Monty's Brasserie in Cheltenham say they saw Tindall, a 16-stone giant of a man, vomiting.
There are reports that his royal girlfriend was so giddy in the convivial atmosphere that she fell off a chair and banged her head.
At around 11am the following day Tindall was stopped in his silver Range Rover and gave a positive breath test. He was arrested and taken to Newbury police station, where he gave a blood test which has been sent for analysis. The results are due at the end of the month.
On the face of it this is a pretty dismaying way for a professional sportsman to behave. No one begrudges a rugby player a bit of a celebration, and of course there is - or was - a great drinking culture in the game, but to be found over the limit well into the following day suggests serious excess.
It's all the more disappointing as Tindall is working his way back to fitness following a horrific injury to his liver which was seriously damaged in a freak accident six weeks ago when he was playing against Wales.
So has Tindall, affectionately known as Iron Mike, been led astray by Zara, 12th in line to the throne but with "a wild streak a mile wide"? And are these two very successful sports people endangering their respective careers with an alcohol-soaked lifestyle?
If you believe family friends and professional associates,what happened at Cheltenham is not --representative of the life the couple lead together.
Although as yet unmarried, they are very much a steady couple,a "Mr and Mrs" in all but name who are deeply committed to a cosy coupledom which embraces long country walks and hearty pub suppers.
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