Casting from base to derived class in base constructor

Dear members,

The following code compiles and runs fine on MSVC++ 2005 Express
edition.
Warning level at maximum and nothing wrong is re****ted.

This is a minimal code I wrote in order to test something for my
personal needs.
I'm not sure if the code is "legal" because I'm downcasting in a
constructor of a base class
to call a member of another base class of a different branch in the
hierarchy.

//------------
#include <iostream>

template<typename Derived>
struct aspect
{
  aspect() { // constructor
    Derived* derived = static_cast<Derived*>(this); // downcast
    derived->handler_member(); // call a member of a base class of
derived
  }
};

template<typename Derived>
struct handler
{
  void handler_member() {
    std::cout << "handler";
  }
};

template<typename Derived, template<class> class Handler>
struct win : public Handler<Derived>
{
};

struct my_win : public win<my_win, handler>
              , public aspect<my_win>
{
  void dummy() {
    std::cout << "ok";
  }
};

int main() {
  my_win w; // print "handler" as expected
  w.dummy(); // print "ok" as expected
  return 0;
}
//------------

Isn't this code somewhat esoteric ?

Thank you

mark