Horses ready for prancing on ice in St Moritz

Purebred Arabian Nil Ashal runs in Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan Listed Cup.

The St Moritz horse racing on snow has been going since 1907. Andy Mettler

In terms of pure, high-octane thrills there are few sporting spectacles close to matching the racing on ice at St Moritz, Switzerland.

The previous opening card of three was cancelled due to mild temperatures, too much snow and a fall involving five horses that put an end to proceedings after the first race. Sochi 2014, this is not.

This card features the second running of the Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Listed Cup, in which Swiss champion Purebred Arabian Nil Ashal is in line to go one better than last year.

Nil Ashal finished second in the inaugural running of the mile contest at the flash Swiss ski resort and bids to extend his winning record to four on his 11th start.

The weights are headed by Alibaba Del Sol, a nine-year-old French-bred trained in the Netherlands by Karin van den Bos, while Hthe Netherlands will also be represented by Benben’Ba, trained by Kim Augenbroe.

With a purse of 42,000 Swiss Francs (Dh172,860) to the winner, the race is by far the most valuable on the seven-race card, which includes two further Flat races and two trotting races.

There are also two Skijoring races, which requires “jockeys” to ski harnessed behind their galloping thoroughbred.

As an illustration of how lucrative the purse is, Phraseur Kossack is the highest earning performer of the six, having accumulated €55,796 (Dh286,655) in prize money during his 22-race career.

Gazel, a five-time winner from 18 starts, and French maiden Vizir De Faust complete the field.

The money stems from the persistent effort of the HH Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Global Arabian Horse Flat Racing Festival, that has worked tirelessly to promote Purebred Arabian racing around the world.

“This is part of our national commitment and the relentless efforts to feature such events at the international levels in line with the strategy of the council in relation to the directives of Sheikh Nahyan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, chairman of the board of trustees of Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Charitable and Humanitarian Foundation,” Mohammed Ibrahim Al Mahmoud, deputy chairman of the General Authority of Youth and Sports Welfare and secretary general of the Abu Dhabi Sports Council, said.

One week on from this event, St Moritz will stage the inaugural HH Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarek Ladies World Championship, which has a purse of 36,000 Swiss francs, third only to the feature races of the entire White Turf series: the Grand Prix BMW at 40,000 Swiss francs and the Gubelin Grosser Preis of St Moritz, a Grade 2 event carrying prize money of 150,150 Swiss francs.

The Ladies World Championship kicked off at Al Flaij in Oman in January and then went to Australia. The St Moritz race is the latest example of the rapid expansion of the Sheikh Mansour Festival, which was launched in 2009.

Follow us on twitter at @SprtNationalUAE