The horse that learned to win
Every yard knows the type. The honest, willing sort who keeps turning up, keeps running into the frame, keeps getting collared late — the kind of horse that fills the placings and tests the patience of everyone who loves it. For most of its career, Winding Power has been exactly that horse. On a firm, sunlit Highveld afternoon at Turffontein, it finally stopped being the bridesmaid altogether.
Look back over the three-year-old’s record and the pattern almost reads like a frustration: second, second, second. Run after run, Winding Power put itself right there at the business end and just couldn’t find the last surge to go clear. Thirteen starts had brought a healthy stack of minor cheques and plenty of “so close” head-shakes around the Fabian Habib yard. What it hadn’t brought, for a long stretch, was the one line every owner wants to read.
Two wins, back to back
That changed on the 4th of June, when Winding Power broke through for its maiden victory over 1600m here at Turffontein. For a horse that had been threatening to win for so long, it was the moment the penny dropped. And on Sunday it backed the breakthrough up in the most emphatic way possible — stepping straight into handicap company over 1450m and winning again, two starts in a row, on the same Johannesburg track where it had finally got off the mark.
There’s something quietly satisfying about a horse that wins this way. No flashy debut, no precocious early hype — just steady improvement, a yard that kept the faith, and a runner that grew into the job. The placings weren’t wasted; they were the apprenticeship.
Muzi Yeni in the saddle
Doing the steering on Sunday was one of South African racing’s most respected horsemen, Muzi Yeni. The Durban-born rider came through the South African Jockey Academy and has spent two decades among the country’s elite — well past two thousand career winners, a swag of big-race victories including the 2023 Betway Summer Cup right here at Turffontein, and a long association with the Highveld circuit where he’s worn the regional crown. His very first top-level success came on this same course back in 2011, so Yeni and Turffontein go back a long way.
Sunday was a profitable afternoon all round for him, too — Winding Power was one of a brace of winners he booted home across the card. For a horse still learning its trade, having a rider of that experience to nurse it through the gears is no small thing.
A Highveld test passed
And make no mistake, Turffontein asks the question. The old Johannesburg track — laid out in 1892, with gold famously discovered deep beneath it a few years later — is widely regarded as one of the most testing galloping circuits in the country. The Standside course climbs steadily on the run for home, and horses who aren’t fully wound up tend to get found out on that long uphill sweep. To win twice in quick succession over this ground says plenty about where Winding Power’s form and fitness are right now.
For a yard like Fabian Habib’s — a Highveld operation built up the hard way, from stable employee to a trainer sending out winners at his home track — these are exactly the results that matter. Not the headline Group races, necessarily, but a tough, genuine handicapper finally delivering on all that promise. Winding Power spent a long time knocking on the door. On Sunday at Turffontein, for the second start running, it walked right through it.
If you’re following the Turffontein form, the full racecard and form guide is at cfox.co.za/predictions.
