Zara Phillips turned away from horse event

Mr Hinton told the Mail: "I feel rather embarrassed and I have had a lot of ribbing about this since. But it was raining and she was wearing a headband. I just saw this face at a car window and asked for her pass and, of course, when she said her mother had it, I had no idea that she was referring to Princess Anne.

"We had queues of cars arriving and, quite frankly, there are always a few people who try to get in without passes and it's our job to stop them.

"You can only get in by paying for a ticket or by having either a trainer or an owner's pass. She was in a very ordinary little car.

"One of the lads helping me then said 'Hey, that's Zara.' I thought it was someone he knew until he added 'Zara Phillips'. Even then it took a second for the penny to drop and then I just said rather lamely: 'Well you'd better come in then...'"