You could say that this Saturday is the unofficial start of the autumn carnival with a Group 1 and seven other black type races at Caulfield plus a Group 2 on the mammoth 11-event programme at Rosehill.

Indubitably, Black Caviar, on target to enhance her flawless career record to18 straight wins in the C.F. Orr Stakes at Caulfield, will be the show-stopper. Her innate ability to relax and accelerate on demand should make her graduation to 1400-metres a foregone conclusion. Certainly she is entitled to be elevated as one the three certainties of life - death, taxes...and Black Caviar!

As we countdown to the champ's outing in the C.F. Orr, it is worth considering what her value would be if she had been a colt. That, of course, is the financial equivalent of what would be necessary for my aunty to be my uncle. Nevertheless, it is a titillating exercise.

Boasting a career tally of 17 unbeaten starts, it is estimated that she would be valued at about $5million. But if Black Caviar was an entire, that price tag would swell by how much?

As a mare she only would have one foal a year but a stud stallion may be mated with something in the vicinity of 300 increasing the value appropriately. The mind boggles!

In supporting events at Caulfield, Peter Moody, the mentor of Black Caviar, has a good chance in the colts and geldings' Blue Diamond Prelude with Planet Voyage. This colt is resuming but on debut he was a solid third to Jimando.

There have been discussions recently that Monday should become a gallops race-free day. And, cognisant of the plethora of race meetings these days, it is understandable that some racing participants may consider it to be an attractive proposition.

At this stage, though, the push is coming from Victoria because Racing New South Wales supremo, Peter V'landys, already has divorced his body from the 'lay day' promoting coterie.

As someone who grew up in those hazy, lazy days of race meetings on Saturdays, public holidays and Wednesdays, the current line-up is a veritable smorgasbord for the punter. All of this begs the question -- what constitutes too much? Which reminds me of a TV commentator who once asked, "when is too much sport barely enough?"

Seriously, though, in addition to racing every day of the week, we also have that summer sideshow of Friday night gallops at Moonee Valley (soon to be enhanced by Cranbourne) in Victoria and Canterbury in Sydney.

Probably the participants - trainers, jockeys, strappers etc - would appreciate a race-free day each week.

Then again, what about the punters? Would they miss a day when there are no gallops?

Of course the punters still will have their appetite sated by a never-ending cavalcade of harness and greyhound meetings to fill any void.