For any athlete, success is a matter of timing. For athletes in equestrianism, the timing applies to horse and rider. The two must peak together. Zara Phillips's bald statement on her withdrawal from the Beijing Games because of injury to Toytown masks the scale of the setback. It takes years for a partnership to reach Olympic standard.

“She's done a fantastic job with the horse, bringing him up through the ranks from Young Riders to senior championships,” Yogi Breisner, the Great Britain team manager, said. “This is unbelievably sad for Zara.”

Olympic glory was the one goal left to complete for Phillips but, at least with Toytown, that dream is over. Phillips, at 27, has many years of competition ahead of her (Mary King, a team-mate, is 47), but Toytown will be 19 by the time of the 2012 London Olympics. Horses aged 16 have won medals in eventing, but none has at 19.

Unlike her team-mates, King and William Fox-Pitt, Phillips does not have a reserve horse of Olympic calibre. The closest, in her present string of ten horses, is Ardfield Magic Star, on which she was nineteenth at Badminton, but his dressage and showjumping are not of the highest quality.

The notion that it must have been easy for Phillips to get to the top because of her background is wrong. There has never been a question of buying a “made” horse; she has had to do it the hard way. This disappointment will intensify her determination to produce more than one contender for 2012.

Phillips's replacement will not be announced until after the Barbury Castle Horse Trials (July 4-6), but such is the calibre of the reserve riders - Ruth Edge, Daisy Dick, Oliver Townend and Tina Cook - that even without Phillips, the team will start as a leading contender for the gold medal. What will be missing is the star quality that Phillips has showered on the team and the sport.

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