Zara Phillips should make no apology for endorsements

SALVIDOR Dalí was a dab hand with a paintbrush but he talked a lot of sense as well.

DANGEROUS GAME: Zara Phillips - the world three-day event champion in 2007 - takes a tumble during last year's Burghley Horse Trials (Getty Images)

"The thermometer of success is merely the jealousy of the malcontents," he wrote, in one of his more sane and less surreal moments.

Zara Phillips this week pitched up with the Mitsubishi Badminton Horse Trials in a top of the range Oakley Supremacy horse box, costing at least a quarter of a million pounds.

And while many might say ‘good on her', there a plenty willing to snipe from the sidelines that she is exploiting her name for financial gain.

The Queen's eldest granddaughter, who won the world three-day eventing title in 2007, is certainly one of the best-supported eventers in the world.

Phillips boasts a £100,000 contract with Rolex and sports a £6,000 Oyster Perpetual to prove it.

She is also the face of a new advertising campaign for clothing company Musto and has been working with Land Rover for the past three years.

In addition, Phillips is paid a reported £90,000 a year by the embattled Royal Bank of Scotland to be a ‘brand ambassador'.

However, RBS - who have been bailed out by the UK taxpayer after posting record losses - are keen to avoid any more bad publicity, if that were possible.

Consequently at Badminton this weekend, Phillips will be branded with the logo of their private banking branch Coutts, where Her Majesty The Queen or Granny just happens to hold her current account.

Her fiercely independent granddaughter is understood to be unhappy with the impression that gives but it is understood the terms of her contract with RBS gave little room for maneuver about which of their brands and products she endorses.

In addition to her main deals, there is also a raft of official suppliers to ease the £500,000 annual cost of running 12 horses and the associated expenses needed to be competitive at world level.

BACK IN THE SADDLE: World champion Zara Phillips missed last year's Beijing Olympics after Toytown sustained an untimely soft tissue injury (Getty Images)

However, Phillips should make no apology for an impressive slate of sponsorship and you wouldn't find the same questions being asked of Andy Murray or Lewis Hamilton - the biggest walking billboards in British sport.

Phillips competes in a discipline that is demanding and dangerous, last week an experienced rider died while competing at the Belton Park Horse Trials.

It's also unbelievably expensive and Phillips receives no money from the Civil List, unlike Uncles Andy and Eddie. 

Sponsors are demanding, they require a return on investment and Phillips delivers that because she has reached her sport's summit through natural talent and dogged determination. 

And being 12th in line to the throne won't bring any time bonuses around Badminton's demanding 28-fence cross country course this weekend.

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