Nothing unites like a common American goal, and this weekend in Keeneland, we are all European.

The Breeders’ Cup is much less the World Championships of Racing than it is the Ryder Cup of Racing, except that there are more American contenders than there are European contenders, and it is staged every year on American turf. (Or dirt.) It is not a jointly-hosted event, it is very much an American party, but the Europeans are welcomed with open arms.

Before last night’s racing, the bookmakers bet best odds of 15/8 about three European winners, 5/2 about four, and 8/1 about five or more. Your sense was to err on the high side, especially with the rain that has been falling on Lexington all week. Then again, your sense is usually to err on the high side with a known challenge, and remember, Karakontie was the only European winner last year.

The 8/1 about five or more European winners looked reasonable. At combined best odds yesterday evening – European combined best odds admittedly – it was a shade of odds-on that a European horse won the Juvenile Turf and a shade of odds-against that a European filly won the Juvenile Fillies.

At combined best odds on this evening’s races, it is about 1/5 that a European horse wins the Mile, about 2/9 that Golden Horn or Found wins the Turf, and around 2/7 that a European wins the Filly and Mare Turf. Put all five eventualities into an accumulator, and that gives you cumulative odds of just over 13/2. And that is without taking Gleneagles or War Envoy or Waterloo Bridge into account. So 8/1 was big.

In order to get on track for that type of total, you would have wanted two winners last night: Hit It A Bomb or Cymric or Birchwood or Shogun in the Juvenile Turf, Alice Springs or Illuminate or Nemoralia in the Juvenile Fillies’ Turf. And if War Envoy happened to win the Dirt Mile as well, well that would just be a bonus.