Brixton rider will compete in Magnolia Cup at Goodwood Racecourse

A young rider from Brixton’s Ebony Horse Club has been confirmed as the 12th and final jockey in this year’s Magnolia Cup race at Goodwood Racecourse on August 1

Khadijah Mellah, 18, who has been a member of the Ebony Horse Club for five years will join model Vogue Williams, Olympian Victoria Pendleton and nine other amateur riders in the female-only charity race which is the opening contest on Ladies’ Day and will take place before a capacity crowd of 25,000.

Mellah’s training will be captured by a documentary team with the film jointly-funded by Great British Racing, Goodwood Racecourse and The Racing Foundation.

The teenager will combined studying for her A-levels with a  gruelling fitness regime. She has already ridden out at Chris Wall’s yard in Newmarket and Simon Dow’s stables in Epsom. where she will train. Mellah visited a racecourse for the first time when attending Newmarket’s Craven Meeting in April.

She said: “I am super-duper excited about riding in the Magnolia Cup.

“It’s going to be a busy few months with my A-Levels as well but I can’t wait to get going.”

ITV Racing presenter Oli Bell, a patron of Ebony Horse Club said: “I am incredibly excited about the documentary and its potential to shine a light on Ebony’s brilliant work and the ways in which it is opening up opportunities for its members in racing, the sport that I love.

“It will be an incredible achievement for Khadijah to go from riding at the club to being able to compete on a racehorse at Goodwood and we are all so impressed with her commitment and drive. She is a great personality and a brilliant rider and we will all be rooting for her in the Magnolia Cup.”

Rod Street, chief executive of Great British Racing, said: “We are very proud and excited to be supporting this brilliant initiative. As a sport we need to be doing so much more to broaden the appeal of racing and we hope that Khadijah’s story will inspire and capture people’s imagination about the power of horses – be they at Ebony or on a racecourse – and prompt more people to consider the sport.”