New star Hillbilly Blues has Golden Gait in his sights
Garrick Knight - Raceform • December 18th, 2025 11:15 AM • 4 min read
It takes a fair bit to impress Tony Herlihy these days. After 47 years of driving in races, he’s seen it all.
So when he speaks effusively about Hillbilly Blues’ win last week at Alexandra Park, you know it was a special performance.
The lightly-raced son of What The Hill was a dominant winner of the I Can Doosit Trot over a field that included two of our biggest square-gaiting names, Mighty Logan and Oscar Bonavena.
“It was a decent step up the other night, but he stuck his hoof right up with the win,” he told RaceForm.
“I was pretty impressed with the way he did it, too – he had to work hard to get around the field to the front and was very strong to the line. He’s always had a bit of speed, but he’s certainly a lot stronger this time in.”
Herlihy and his wife Suzanne still part-own Hillbilly Blues, but the horse is now trained on the beach by Bernie Hackett and Michelle Wallis.
This week, he heads back to Alexandra Park aiming for victory in the $50,000 Golden Gait R55-85 Aged Trot, and due to his comparatively low rating of 60, he gets a luxury barrier to work with.
He’s had three starts for three placings from behind the mobile and Herlihy expects he will add to that record this week.
“He’s usually raced quite good from behind the gate.
“There are a few in there that are racing well, like the mare I drove last week – Walkinonsunshine – and it’s certainly shaping to be a strong race. But from his draw and the way he raced last week, he’s probably the horse to beat.”
There’s no doubt that Hillbilly Blues announced himself as an open-class horse last week and bookies, accordingly, opened him a $2.30 favourite on Tuesday.
Herlihy has a very strong book of drives on the night, and that starts with stable runner Double Parked in the opening race, the Golden Gait R43-51 Aged Pace.
He was an easy winner of a penalty-free race a fortnight ago after getting an uncontested lead, but Herlihy can’t see that happening this week from a wider draw.
“He’s close to his best for this and I am very happy with him, but over the mile it’s going to be a bit awkward from out there.
“They really hum into that first bend and there is quite a bit of gate speed underneath him with Words and Mick Konstantin.
“If he can get a bit of a trip into it, he will be fine, but I can’t see myself going forward at the start.”
Herlihy says mile racing at Alexandra Park is tempo-dependent more than draw-dependent.
“The draw isn’t as important as how fast the race is run.”
Herlihy’s classy trotter Youneverknow looks to be in a match race with last week’s Gr.1 Queen Of Diamonds winner Ya Rite Darl in the $50,000 Golden Gait 3YO Mobile Trot.
It was a perfectly timed drive from Herlihy which saw Youneverknow win an undercard race as hot favourite last week.
“He’s another one that’s going to need to get that cart up into the race. It’s a tricky race for him, drawn wide, but he’s certainly capable of winning.
“The trip down south for the slot race and Derby really helped him – he’s come back all grown up.
“It’s never easy from eight over the mile, so I will play it by ear. That being said, he’s quite a tractable horse and has a bit of speed, too.”
Ya Rite Darl will start off the unruly on the second line.
Bookies can’t separate them at $2.20 apiece, with every other horse in double figures at the time of writing.
Herlihy has picked up the plum drive on $1.20 hotpot Cyclone Rebel in the $50,000 Golden Gait 2YO Mobile Pace. He was a tragedy beaten last week and regular driver Matty White is committed to his own horse American Falcon this week.
“He seems a nice horse and good drive to pick up.
“Obviously it didn’t work out for Matty last week, but you could see he was trying to look after him with this week in mind. I guess if he wins, I’ll have Matty to thank for that.”
Herlihy continues his association with The Surfer in the night’s feature pace, where he will take on stablemate Jolimont and warm favourite Sooner The Bettor.
“Missing away last week might have just cost him in the sprint up the straight last week. He’d been racing well before that, and this is a slight step down with no Merlin.
“We’ll see what Arna (Donnelly, trainer) thinks, but he’s got some early speed and we may need to use it.”
Rounding out his drives are the two-year-old trotter Te Ahi and the mid-grade pacer Final Change, who he has won a couple of times behind at long odds recently.
“I’m just not sure that the mile will suit Final Change. He’s a better horse over 2200 metres, but I guess if they went really hard, he’s the kind of horse that would find the line.
“Te Ahi has been doing everything pretty right recently. It’s a nice even field and manners will probably come into play. He’s generally pretty sensible and also has the miles in his legs around the Auckland track too.”
Asked for his best chance of the night, Herlihy lumped for Hillbilly Blues.
“The way he won the other night with the likelihood of him being handy to the speed, he has to be a good chance.”
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