Merely-A-Monarch
WHEN Anneli Drummond-Hay put a wanted advert in Horse & Hound for a potential eventer in 1957, she could little predict how the resulting purchase would define her entire career. That young horse, whom she named Merely-A-Monarch, would go on to win the inaugural Burghley, then Badminton, before switching to showjumping and winning dozens of grands prix and Nations Cups around the world.
He was shortlisted for the Olympic Games in all three disciplines, and talent-spotted by a top National Hunt trainer of the time as a shoe-in for the Gold Cup. No other horse in history has proved quite as versatile nor achieved such success across the disciplines.
Fate played its part after that initial advert.
“I received a hundred replies, including one photo of a nice-looking bay but I rejected him for being too young at two years old,” says Anneli. “Fortuitously I lost the photo, which then turned up six months later in an empty suitcase as I was packing to go to a
