Habib sets sail with Wind Trail

For a jockey of his calibre, it sure took a long time for 2018/2019 Zimbabwe champion Calvin Habib to get the monkey off his back in his Singapore stint.

Interestingly, he was the last of the Kranji jockeys to score.

The 26-year-old, who boasts about 330 winners in his eight-year career (including four at Group 1 level), had to wait until his 37th ride at his eighth Kranji meeting before he could greet the judge.

It was all thanks to the Hideyuki Takaoka-trained $49 shot Wind Trail in Saturday’s $50,000 Class 4 staying event over 2,000m on turf.

But victory did not come easy. Habib had to sweat for every dollar of his riding fee – and first Singapore winner’s commission.

Before his first taste of Kranji success, his best efforts were three seconds and four thirds.

Wind Trail was engaged in a three-way finish and got the bob of the head from joint $49 chance Tony’s Love, the mount of the in-form and lesser-known jockey Shafrizal Saleh, who snared a brace with Prestige Star ($24) and Cool Sixty-One ($81).

Third, a neck away, was the $22 joint-second favourite Prioritize (Manoel Nunes).

The $17 favourite Laksana (Simon Kok) finished fourth, 1¼ lengths further back.

The winning time was a slow 2min 05.99sec.

“It’s been a bit of a tough one, because I haven’t got one (winner) since coming here, but we plugged on and there’s finally a winner,” said Habib, who made his Singapore debut on Feb 12. His licence is until the end of 2023.

“I want to thank the trainer, Mr Takaoka, for his support. I thought he (Wind Trail) had a good chance because his trackwork this week was good and we were pleased with him.

“Also, he got a good draw (2)... I just bided my time and switched off and had a good run.

“He was tracking so well into the race and I thought we’d win at the 400m. He was really gutsy to the line.”

It was certainly a calm and collected ride from Habib.

He got Wind Trail off swiftly and secured the dream box-seat position behind Lim’s Puncak Jaya (Marc Lerner), who led narrowly from Fort Mustang (Amirul Ismadi).

There was a big gap to Tony’s Love and Laksana.

Lerner dropped anchor down the back straight for a pedestrian 52.30sec first 800m. Fort Mustang stayed glued to the leader.

Habib bided his time.

Probably sensing that the pace was slow, Nunes made a swift forward move from second last to cover Lim’s Puncak Jaya and For Mustang turning into the straight.

He then kicked slightly clear on the Stephen Gray-trained four-year-old, who was bidding for his third success in his last four starts.

Habib knew it was time to press the button. He was joined in tandem by Tony’s Love on his outside.

With Lim’s Puncak Jaya and Fort Mustang already sending out distress signals, the pair made it interesting by closing in rapidly on Prioritize.

In a touch-and-go finish, Wind Trail, the meat in the sandwich of the trio, put his head down where it mattered most.

Bravo, a top ride indeed from Habib.

He made the difference between winning and losing.

Surely, his phone will ring more often now.

Habib knows, for sure, to reach his personal goal of winning 20 to 25 races, he needs the support of trainers and owners.

“I am riding trackwork for pretty much anyone at the moment to get around and form relationships with as many trainers as I can to make the most of this opportunity,” he said.

“I said before, when I first came here, that 20 to 25 winners in a season would be good and, right now, I will still try to reach this goal.

“We strive as high as we can, and whatever else comes, I’ll take it. If I get a Group 1 win here, it would be the cherry on the top.”

In racing, you just need that spark to keep the luck rolling.

Now that he has broken the jinx, Habib can be expected to greet the judge more often.

After all, he is not any jockey. He is a top rider in his own right.