R
obert Louis Stevenson once
wrote, "To travel hopefully is a
better thing than to arrive." The
novelist and travel writer died 13
years before the running of the first White
Turf meeting in St Moritz in 1907, but had
he had he lived long enough to pay a visit to
the world's most extraordinary racecourse
he'd almost certainly have had cause to re-
vise that sentiment.
However, the journey to the Engadine Val-
ley in the Swiss Alps is quite something in
itself. Never mind the routine flight to Zu-
rich, it's once you head for the train station
at the airport that the fun begins. As with
most things in life, knowledgeable contacts
are important and, fortuitously, having
persuaded Darley's European nominations
manager Dawn Laidlaw to be my travel-
ling companion for the weekend, we then
bumped into seasoned St Moritz visitors
Mark and Deirdre Johnston with their son
Angus at the airport.
The Johnstons had worked out long ago
that the train journey of around four hours
would pass much more agreeably with a lit-
tle liquid refreshment en route and they di-
rected us to the nearest wine shop where
the thoughtful man behind the counter
proffered a corkscrew and plastic glasses to
help us on our way.
Once out of the Zurich suburbs and hur-
tling south to the mountains, the scenery
just gets better and better. We heeded an-
other important Johnston tip to be in one
of the panoramic carriages of the brilliant-
