ENGADIN ST. MORITZ - White Turf St. Moritz: these famous international horse races take place on frozen Lake St. Moritz over the first three Sundays in February. The event was founded in 1907; the attractive programme also includes harness races.PHOTO: swiss-image.ch/Michael Mettler
Lake St. Moritz sits beside its namesake resort town in the Engadine valley of the Graubünden region, Switzerland. The highest summit in the Eastern Alps, Piz Bernina, is just a few kilometres south of the town.
Lake St. Moritz has a surface area of just 0.78 km², which dictates a smaller sailing area and encourages tight, close-proximity sailing at the St. Moritz Match Race. The BLU26 boats are the smallest on the 2012 Alpari World Match Racing Tour and accommodate a 4-man crew.
Outside of sailing, the frozen lake also hosts sport in January and early February. Polo matches are held annually and, in contrast to traditional field polo, use larger and lighter red balls which are more easily visible in the snow.
Since 1907, horse races called "White Turf" have been held, attracting wealthy tourists to the area for the unique sporting spectacle. During these years, sports enthusiasts also invented the sport of skijoring in the region. In this type of race, thoroughbred horses compete with skiers in tow.
More traditional sports have also visited St. Moritz over the years, the first ice cricket tournament having taken place on the frozen lake in 1988. English cricketer David Gower featured in the 1990 event, parking his rental car on the ice overnight. He returned to find that it had broken through the ice and sunk.
| F | SF | QF | QR | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FINAL | |||||
| Ian Williams | .png&w=20) |
1-0 | 3-2 | 0-0 | 9-2 |
| Adam Minoprio |  |
0-1 | 3-1 | 3-2 | 6-5 |
| PETIT FINAL | |||||
| Mathieu Richard |  |
1-0 | 1-3 | 3-1 | 8-3 |
| Johnie Berntsson |  |
0-1 | 2-3 | 3-2 | 6-5 |
The King Edward VII Gold Cup is the oldest match-racing trophy in the world for competition involving one-design yachts. It was given at the Tri-Centenary Regatta at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1907 by King Edward VII in commemoration of the 300th Anniversary of the first permanent settlement in America. C. Sherman Hoyt won the regatta and was the first to accept the now historic cup.
After three decades of holding the Cup, Mr. Hoyt gave it to the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club and proposed a regular one-on-one match-race series in 6-Meter yachts. In his letter he expressed the propriety of “my returning a British Royal trophy to the custody of your club, with its long record of clean sportsmanship and keenly contested races between your Bermuda yachts and ours of Long Island Sound, and elsewhere...” The first winner of the Cup in its new format was the celebrated Briggs Cunningham, who was also the first skipper to win the America’s Cup in a 12-Meter.
In the post-war years, the Club placed the Cup in competition in 1956 for match-racing in yachts of the International One Design Class. Bert Darrell had the honor of being first to defend the Cup in this class and won it a total of six times.
By winning his seventh championship in 2004, Russell Coutts surpassed Darrell to become the event’s all-time winner.
Through the years Bermuda has won the Cup 21 times, the United States 17 times, New Zealand 10 times, Australia 5 times, the United Kingdom three times, and in 2002 Denmark claimed the King Edward VII Gold Cup for the first time.
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