Zara Phillips on Toytown.

Well, it was close at the end, but Zara Phillips, riding the ever-reliable Toytown, has taken the World Three-Day Eventing title at the World Equestrian Games in Germany. Great Britain came second in the team event to a very strong German team.

All the more remarkable then that Zara should triumph individually, the more so because she is still mourning the death of her close friend, Sherelle Duke at a horse trials in Hampshire last Sunday.

Despite having one fence down, her nearest rival, Germany’s Bettina Hoy, dropped three fences and accumulated time faults to kill off her challenge.

The Queen was said to have watched on television at Balmoral and will surely be opening a jeroboam of bubbly to toast her granddaughter’s famous victory.

Princess Anne will be musing on the fact that her status as the Royal Family’s premier equestrian has now been taken over by her daughter — I doubt she will be displeased at that.

A beaming Mike Tindall, Zara’s boyfriend, was among the first to congratulate his own Master of Horse, but she seemed too overcome to notice anyone.

If Zara can add the Olympic crown to her World and European titles, what a spectacular achievment that would be. Today’s events showed that she is more than capable of that.

Now the Royal Anecdotes team is off to raise a glass of our own to Zara and her magnificent triumph in Aachen.