There seems to be a knee-jerk reaction to the small field of only six starters that will line up in tomorrow's $500,000 Group 1 Futurity Stakes (wfa, 1600m) at Caulfield.

Changing the date, switching the distance back to 1400m (it's been 1600m since 2006) and changing the conditions from weight for age to handicap are just some of the "need to fix it" notes being dropped into the suggestion box.

One suggestion is to drop it from the Asian Mile Series - now there's a comment for comment's sake.

But there is no evidence to suggest there is something drastically wrong with the Futurity Stakes, other than the fact that small fields are usual for weight-for-age races and that the brilliant mare Typhoon Tracy has scared away many of her rivals - even those unwilling to go around for the $11,000 paid to horses finishing sixth to 10^th. My question is: do we really want these types of horses cluttering up the Group 1 fields anyway? My answer: certainly not.

Last year Niconero beat six other rivals in a memorable finish to the Futurity, running down Light Fantastic in the last stride; the year before, the same horse beat 11 others.

The unbeaten Reset beat only four rivals in 2004 and Octagonal's brilliant brother Mouawad led home five others in 1997 - both races stick hard in the memory and rate with the best Futurity Stakes that I have witnessed.

Let us just enjoy the whirlwind that is Typhoon Tracy, a wonderful mare heading for the top shelf, or celebrate a horse good enough to beat her ... and leave this historic race alone.