Our photo of horses on the snow at St Moritz accompanying a piece about pre- Christmas racing at Cheltenham prompted a few wags to write in suggesting it never hacks up that soft in the Cotswolds. Ho-ho. But, as Iain Fletcher explains, the Swiss don't let such unsound surfaces put them off racing horses or playing, er, cricket.



Think you've suffered cold at Towcester or boggy conditions and frost at Folkestone? Well, trust me, that's nothing. Try racing at -12C on a frozen lake 5,000 feet up the Alps with your nostril hairs frozen like matchsticks. That's extreme.



Held every February over three weekends, the White Turf events at St Moritz, a resort for European chic and increasingly Russian billionaires, are incredibly glamorous and popular.