Billed as the World Thoroughbreds Championships, this year's Breeders' Cup lacks a global flavor. Only 11horses who last raced in Europe have been pre-entered, plus one horse from Japan. Astonishingly, there is just one European entry in the $2 million Breeders' Cup Turf, the same race the Europeans have won five straight times. Now, they don't want to have anything to do with it.

It's not hard to figure out what is going on here. European owners and trainers have had enough of their horses wilting and failing in the hot sun of California and Florida in climates totally foreign to them at this time of year. They see Dallas and forecasts of 85 degree heat as more of the same. Throw in Lone Star's small, tight seven-furlong turf course and there's just one more reason for the Europeans to stay home.

"We knew that it would be a bit of a challenge (attracting European horses)," said Breeders' Cup President D.G. Van Clief Jr. "It's always a little bit more of a recruiting challenge when we're running at a warm weather venue. The same is true at Santa Anita last year. So they've got a little bit more to overcome to ship to say Texas or California than they do to Kentucky or New York. So that's not a surprise."

The Breeders' Cup grass races suffered another blow when Woodbine decided to schedule the E.P. Taylor for fillies and mares and the Canadian International for males just six days before this year's Breeders' Cup. Though the purses of each race were about half the amount paid out in their comparable Breeders' Cup races, the two Canadian events drew strong European contingents. Four European horses ran in each race and the male quartet finished first, second, third and fourth in the Canadian International.

Clearly, European trainers would rather run for less money at Woodbine, with its frigid weather and huge, wide turf course than they would in Breeders' Cup races at toasty Lone Star. Woodbine certainly didn't do the sport any favors by rescheduling their races so close to Breeders' Cup Day, but there's no stopping a foreign track that, apparently, doesn't have any designs on hosting a future Breeders' Cup.

Van Clief and company should be very concerned about the weak turnout from Europe this year. The Breeders' Cup needs strong European participation to live up to its billing as a true global event, a World Series of racing. Getting the same 10 American horses in the Turf who might have met in the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic, The Clement L. Hirsch or the Eddie Read just doesn't get the job done.

Here are the possible solutions:

Stop holding the Breeders' Cup in warm weather sites:
That would please the Europeans to no end, but it's unacceptable. Santa Anita, Hollywood Park, Gulfstream, Lone Star and maybe even Del Mar have every right to host the Breeders' Cup. To eliminate those tracks in favor of the cold-weather facilities like Belmont, Monmouth and Churchill would be horribly unfair.

Let the Europeans be damned:
There's something to be said for this being an American event fueled largely by American dollars and that we really shouldn't care that much if the Europeans come across the ocean. But, we need them. Horses like Arazi, Miesque, Pebbles, Daylami, High Chaparral and so many others have provided the event with some of its greatest and most memorable moments. This cannot be a world thoroughbred championship without them.

Hold the turf races at a European track:
Now we're getting somewhere. Isn't in time that the Breeders' Cup gives serious thought to landing on European soil? The time to do it would be the next time the event is scheduled at a warm weather site. With the next three Breeders' Cups set for Belmont, Churchill and Monmouth, either a California track or Gulfstream is probably in line for the 2008 running. It would be a perfect time to experiment. Run all three turf races in Europe.

In England, tracks like Newbury, York and the soon-to-rebuilt Ascot would be perfect. In France, Longchamp would be a great location. Leopardstown in Ireland would be perfect. With the difference in time zones, the first three races of Breeders' Cup Day would all be run in Europe, before darkness fell.

American connections might not be too happy about having to send their turf horses overseas every few years, but shipping to Europe isn't much more difficult these days than it is to ship from New York to California. It's the least we can do after we've been asking the Europeans to come over here for 20 straight years.