Eventing’s latest Royal ambassador takes the sport into the mainstream once again as Zara Phillips wins the Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year Award

Zara Phillips won the Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year Award last night in a ceremony at Old Billingsgate Market in London.

She beat off stiff competition including Paula Radcliffe and Dame Ellen McArthur, but her win earlier this year at the European Eventing Championships clearly won over the newspaper's readers, who voted her their favourite.

The award rounds off an incredible year for the 24-year-old champion, who talks about her recent success in full in this week's edition of Horse & Hound magazine.

She reflects on her partnership with Toytown, the horse which helped her to second place at their first CCI**** event in Burghley in 2003, and went on to partner her to victory at the European Championships at Blenheim.

Zara, who has also been nominated for BBC Sports Personality of the Year, maintains in the interview that the pressure she has already been under is only going to increase, as it will be a struggle to maintain the brilliant form she displayed this season.

Of Badminton next year, she coolly says: "I'll just have to see what everyone wants – if the selectors want me to compete there I will, but I won't if they don't.'

Read the full interview in this week's Horse & Hound magazine, on sale now.

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