Hawaii Five Oh looking for extra Stradbroke Handicap gear

Hawaii Five Oh has an “extra gear” connections are trying to unlock. Picture: Grant Guy.

It's not often you win a Group race like Hawaii Five Oh did last start and connections are disappointed, but breeder and co-owner Gerry Harvey insists his expensive colt is holding something back ahead of his shot at Group 1 glory in the Stradbroke Handicap on Saturday.

Hawaii Five Oh was a dominant winner of the Fred Best Classic to book his ticket into the Stradbroke, but Harvey believes it should have been by more, with jockey Nash Rawiller reporting the colt has an extra gear to go to, if he wants to use it.

As a full brother to super mare Libertini, Harvey said it is all part of his so called "Libertini Curse", which has seen all the progeny out of his mare Aloha blessed with ability, but also an unbelievable way to find themselves in trouble.

"He had the run in Sydney, (Nash) Rawiller was on it and he thought it'd go OK, Gai (Waterhouse) thought he was maybe a bit big and fat," Harvey said.

"Then it hit the front and he thought about it, he was looking around and couldn't find a horse.

"Then he came up to Brisbane and (Rawiller) got off and said, ‘he has got another gear, he isn't using it'.

"Why isn't it using it? We thought he should have won by six lengths and he only won by one.

Hawaii Five Oh is the Stradbroke Handicap second favourite. Picture: Grant Peters-Trackside Photography

"The situation now is that we are very disappointed, he should have won by six lengths, so we don't know what to do about it.

"We have put a female on it now, the blokes can't find the gear, so hopefully Rachel (King) can.

"You have to hope she can find the extra bit, I don't know what she can do to it, maybe she can talk to him before hand and convince him."

As one of the best sprinting mares in the country, Libertini famously died from a heart attack during trackwork one morning, causing Harvey to coin the "Libertini Curse" phrase.

"Every horse out of Aloha is a galloper, there's not one that can't gallop," Harvey said.

"I had a Sebring filly out of Aloha called The Motley Fool, I sent it to Mick Price and it had a load of ability but it wouldn't go in the barrier, and when it goes in the barrier, it won't come out of the barrier.

"Then all these horse whisperers tell you they have got it right, after many efforts we had to retire it.

"Then there's De An Andretti, who is another full sister, everyone has this huge wrap on it saying it's faster than Libertini, then she almost died, she had a 20 per cent of surviving, so we had written her off as gone. The Libertini Curse struck again.

"Every member of the family has something wrong, this bloke is three (years old), has loads of ability, but he has another gear that he won't use."

Punters believe the curse can be broken however, with the colt continuing to be well supported in betting, with TAB winding him in from $6 to $4.40 by Thursday.