TEAM PRICE SETTING SIGHTS ON HOME TRACK FILLIES’ CLASSIC

LEADING Kembla Grange trainers Rob and Luke Price have already won their home track’s richest race in spring (the $1m The Gong with ill-fated Count De Rupee in 2021).

Now the father and son team is setting sights on also landing Illawarra Turf Club’s autumn feature, the $250,000 Kembla Grange Classic.

Run at set weights plus penalties, the 1600m Group 3 for three-year-old fillies is the target for lightly-raced Aisle Two, who made a successful return to racing at home today.

Ridden by Tommy Berry, the well supported $3.50 favorite surged home on the inside to defeat fellow local, Steven Sampson’s $81 rank outsider Starinion, and leading Hawkesbury trainer Brad Widdup’s Bianca Mia ($5.50), in the Class 1 Handicap (1200m).

It was the daughter of Shooting To Win’s second victory at only her sixth start.

“Aisle Two’s breeder Mr Dollimore rang to ask if we would train Aisle Two,” co-trainer Luke Price said this evening.

“He bred her from an unraced mare (Think I’ll Keeper) who I understand he didn’t pay a lot of money for.

“Aisle Two has a lovely attitude, and is a progressive filly.

“Obviously she is going to have to keep stepping up, but getting her to the Kembla Grange Classic (on March 13) is our plan.

“That was 1200m today, and she will take improvement from the run as she had only the one lead-up barrier trial.

“Our home race is for fillies, and some of them may instead run in the Group 2 Phar Lap Stakes (1500m) at Rosehill Gardens the following day.”

Aisle Two is something of a rarity, as she is the only one of her family to so far face the starter.

Her 12-year-old dam didn’t get off the mark, and neither did her older half-sisters Worth Keeping (by Kermadec) and Bre’s Bonus (by Real Steel).

Team Price finished second (to Queen Of Dragons) with subsequent Group 1 Queensland Oaks placegetter Our Gold Hope in the 2024 Classic, and the now five-year-old mare is back in work.

“She is going to really need to show her best form this time,” Luke Price said.

“The breeding season in September isn’t all that far away if she doesn’t shape up.”

Aisle Two’s victory was one of four for local trainers on the six-race midweek program.

Kerry Parker scored with Walk Like A Man ($1.95 favorite) in the opener, the 4YO & Up Maiden Plate (1600m), Theresa Bateup followed up in the next with Mr Fabulous ($7.50) in the Benchmark 64 Handicap (2400m), and Ross McConville snared the closer, the Conditional Benchmark 68 Handicap (1300m), with C’mon Mate ($11).

McConville’s move to take both a tongue tie and winkers off the gelding and race him in blinkers instead clearly worked, and apprentice Siena Grima’s 3kg claim was the icing on the cake.

. Fellow local trainer Paul Murray’s $2m Inglis Millennium hope Where’s The Circus galloped between races with Kerry Parker’s Let’s Go Again in preparation for the February 7 feature for two-year-olds at Royal Randwick.

Murray wanted last month’s $400,000 Inglis Nursery debut winner at Randwick to have a good hitout, and was pleased with her work, with Millennium jockey Jay Ford in the saddle.

STORY JOHN CURTIS, JANUARY 29, 2026 - PICS BRADLEY PHOTOS