White Turf Races - St Moritz - Switzerland

Ski Image

The "White Turf" horse races have been held on the frozen lake at the Swiss resort of St Moritz since 1907. The races are held on 3 weekends in February, when the resort's image as a millionaire's playground is enhanced further by mega-rich visitors sipping champagne, wolfing-down caviar and handing over giant rolls of swiss francs in betting money. It's not just some sort of novelty event though - the races are actually the most lucrative in Switzerland, with prize money totalling just under half a million Swiss Francs. As well as the traditional horses-with-jockeys that we're used to in Blighty, the event also features skijoring, where instead of having someone on their back, the horses race along pulling a skier, a bit like an alpine-skiing version of chariot racing. The skijoring tournament takes places over the same 3 weekends and at the end the skier with the most points from the 3 weekends is crowned as "the King of the Engadin Valley".

The resort is also well known for it's polo tournament played on the frozen lake, whilst other sports have also been tried on it, an "ice-cricket" match for instance back in 1990's, although the event became more famous for David Gower's car sinking into the frozen lake, rather than the match itself !