FASHION TRENDS OFF AND RACING

TODAY: 8-PAGE RACE GUIDE SUNDAY: SPECIAL CUP EDITION

HOBART milliner Cessiah Alice has weathered the COVID-19 storm and is moving on to bigger things after spending the past year creating her trendsetting pieces out of a shed.

The award-winning small business owner is gearing up for one of the biggest days on her calendar – Sunday’s $250,000 Ladbrokes Hobart

Cup. She said the past 12 months saw her pivot into mostly headbands and everyday wear, with the widespread cancellation of events resulting in a drop in demand for her more traditional racewear pieces.

“A lot of my local customers wanted to still support me so I’ve sold quite a few of those plus there’s been a few online fashions on the field photo competitions, so I have sold a few of my proper pieces as well,” she said. “I’ve just moved into a new studio – we were living in a shed while my husband built our new house so the space I’m in now is almost the size of our entire living space in the shed – it was very close quarters.”

Cessiah will have a stall with all her stock at the Tasmanian Derby Day on Friday and said race goers had the opportunity to be a trendsetter, with it hard to tell exactly what would be in style this season.

“Normally you get a gauge from the previous year, but because there weren’t many race events, it’s a little hard to tell at the moment,” she said.

Categories for the Hobart Cup Fashions on the Field include female, male and best millinery.

FRENCH import Barade has been installed the $5 favourite for the Hobart Cup at Elwick on Sunday, in what is one of the most open cups in years.

The gelding was a laststart winner of the Magic Millions Shoot Out over 2206m at Eagle Farm (Qld) and trainer Archie Alexander confirmed he had arrived in the state safe and sound.

“We picked this race after he won the Shoot Out at

Eagle Farm because the Brisbane race club changed the qualifying conditions of the Magic Millions Shoot Out series by not allowing European horses to compete in the final,” Alexander said from Melbourne on Thursday.

“But in saying that, the Hobart Cup is a nice race for him, and we are very much looking forward to him racing down there.”

Barade is lightly raced, having had only 22 starts for five wins and seven minor

placings, with his three wins in Australia being between 2000 and 2200m.

“I’m sure 2400m is as far as he likes it, so this race will test him out, but he is very strong, and he is a bulldog when it comes to a fight.”

The six-year-old will be ridden by Declan Bates from barrier 11 in the field of 15.

Barade is favourite for the $250,000 Group 3 event ahead of last year’s winner Toorak Affair ($5.50) who recently won two weight-forage races in Launceston leading up to her fourth in the Summer Cup two weeks ago.

That race was won by rank outsider White Hawk – a $14 chance on Sunday.

The Tasmanian-bred and owned Double You Tee – who was trained in Tasmania by John Blacker as a two and three-year-old but is now with Patrick Payne in Victoria – has had backing at $6, while the Scott Brunton-trained Mandela Effect is next in the betting at $7.50. Mandela Effect

had his first try beyond 1600m in the Summer Cup (2200m) and a game second convinced his trainer the Turffontein gelding had staying potential.

Blacker’s grey mare Glass Warrior, third in last year’s cup, is an $8 chance, with the balance of the field at double figures, including the only other interstate-owned and trained runner Classic Weiwei, from the Tony and Calvin McEvoy stable. The rank outsider is Exoteric at $151.