Thoroughbreds at a gallop on a metre of ice, in front of the Engadin, as they have been since 1907
White Turf St Moritz has been run on the frozen lake at St Moritz since 1907. It takes place across three consecutive Sundays each February — 7, 14 and 21 February 2027, the 120th running — with a Family Day on the Saturday before each racing day. Some 35,000 people come over the three weekends, to a course laid out on a metre of ice at 1,800 metres.
It is a genuine race meeting rather than a spectacle with horses attached. Thoroughbreds come from across Europe, the jockeys are international, and owners and trainers plan their winters around it. It simply happens to be run on a lake, in winter sunshine, with the Engadin on every side.
Flat racing and trotting make up the recognisable half of the card — thoroughbreds over a track cut into the ice, and drivers in sulkies behind pairs of horses.
The third discipline is the reason the photographs travel. Skijoring — Skikjöring, in the Engadin’s own spelling — puts a competitor on skis behind a riderless thoroughbred, holding the reins, over a course of 2,700 metres. They start together, as in any gallop race, and they finish at racing speed with nothing between skier and hooves but a set of reins and a good deal of nerve. The discipline was developed here more than a century ago and, in this form, is run nowhere else in the world. The rider who takes the season’s standings earns the title King of the Engadine.
Tell us which Sunday suits and we will build the Engadin week around the racing
The lake carries a tented hospitality village, catering, bookmakers, music and an art programme, and the crowd is a mix the Engadin manages better than most places — racing people who came for the card, the international set who came for the weekend, and locals for whom White Turf is simply the fixture that marks February.
It runs in daylight, in the open, on ice, and the temperature is the one variable nobody controls. In January the same lake holds Snow Polo and The Ice St Moritz, which is why most of our members treat the Engadin winter as a season rather than a single date.
A practical note on the three Sundays. The first is the quietest and the easiest to arrange at short notice. The third carries the weight of the season’s standings, including the skijoring title, and it is the one the Engadin itself turns out for. The middle Sunday is the compromise, and in most years the best attended by visitors.
The other thing worth knowing is that everything happens outdoors on ice at 1,800 metres, in February. There is no indoors except the tents, the sun is strong enough to burn, and the temperature swing between the shaded side of the lake and the sunny one is larger than anyone expects.
Arrive with proper eye protection and something for the wind, and the day is straightforward.
Across three Sundays — 7, 14 and 21 February 2027 — which will be the 120th running.
On the frozen lake at St Moritz, in the Engadin valley of eastern Switzerland.
A race in which a competitor on skis is pulled by a riderless thoroughbred over a 2,700-metre course on the ice. It was developed in the Engadin more than a century ago and is still run in this form only here.
The ice is measured and the course prepared before each meeting, and the event has run since 1907. As with any outdoor winter fixture, conditions can move a date.
A quieter programme held on the Saturday before each racing Sunday — 6, 13 and 20 February 2027.
Snow Polo and The Ice St Moritz are both held on the same lake in January, and the Cresta Run is open through the winter.
The third carries the season’s standings and the local crowd; the first is the quietest and easiest to arrange late; the middle is usually the busiest with visitors.
