Redemption time for Hes Not That Into U
Garrick Knight - Raceform • October 23rd, 2025 11:35 AM • 4 min read
After more than 24,000 career drives, you wouldn’t think it was possible to hit master horseman Tony Herlihy with something he’d never experienced before.
But juvenile pacer Hes Not That Into U managed it on debut on October 3 when he threw away a certain victory by running sideways at full speed just 10 metres short of the Alexandra Park winning post.
It was as abrupt as it was shocking and, even though the horse still got to the line first by a nose, he ended up being relegated for galloping across the line, leaving a sour taste in the mouth of not only those who backed him in to favourite, but Herlihy and his owners.
“It was something new for me,” Herlihy told RaceForm. “I’ve had a couple that have ducked and dived at the winning post before, but nothing like that.
“And I’m really not sure where it came from, because he doesn’t do any of that sort of nonsense at home. Whether it was the lights of the winning post or what, I’m not sure.
“But I trialled him back there last week and he was perfect. I kept him next to another horse and it seemed to do the trick.”
Hes Not That Into U is highly rated by Herlihy and he will get the chance for redemption in Friday night’s $15,000 Classique Landscapers Mobile Pace for maiden two-year-olds.
“He’s got a bit of bottom to him and I’d like to think he’d go on with it. There are two or three nice horses in there, but I’m pretty sure he’s capable of measuring up to any of them.”
Herlihy has also thrown a pacifier on the son of Bettor’s Delight.
The stable has five other runners on the night including the very progressive three-year-old trotter Youneverknow, who opened a prohibitive $1.45 favourite for the $15,000 TAB Northern Metro Trotters Heat 4.
There’s a strong chance he will be at Addington in a month’s time for the $200,000 New Zealand Trotting Derby, such is the regard in which Herlihy holds him.
“I would say he could end up down there. He seems to have come back from a spell really well, just that little bit stronger, and I think he’s probably up to the better ones.”
Double Parked has drawn the ace in his heat of the pacers’ Northern Metro Series and Herlihy thinks that will take him close.
“He made it a bit tough on himself by being silly at the start and slow to get on the gate and ended up four back.
“I only lined him up again because didn’t have a hard run and he seems to have come on again from that first-up run.
“It’s another nice field and it’s never easy in that grade, but he’s capable of winning from the draw.”
Trotting mare Regal Girl has been pulling double duty in recent weeks, racing at both Cambridge and Auckland on back-to-back nights. It’s just the latter this week and Herlihy is hoping for the best.
“It’s a tough grade for her at the moment and she’s always thereabouts, but not quite good enough to run in the money.
“But those runs have done her no harm, and I actually thought she went four good races.”
In the last race on the card, Herlihy rolls out two more maidens – the debuting two-year-old gelding Super Crunch, and Gloria Steinem, a three-year-old filly having her second start.
“Super Crunch is a nice big horse that will hopefully take a bit of experience from a couple of starts before going out for a spell.
“Gloria Steinem has a bit of scope about her and should be a good chance this week. They’re two nice horses going forward.”
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