At 1.10pm on Thursday, Khadijah Mellah, an 18-year-old from Peckham, became the first jockey to ride in a race in Britain wearing a hijab. Mellah was the youngest jockey in Thursday’s 12-strong field, and up against several opponents who had learned to ride almost as soon as they could walk. Mellah, by contrast, did not sit on a horse until her early teens, after her mother noticed an advertisement for the Ebony Horse Club, which aims to “transform young lives through horses in south London’s most disadvantaged communities”. In an interview with the Guardian last month, Mellah explained that she first discovered the Ebony Horse Club when her mother saw a leaflet at a local mosque. Hayley Turner, British racing’s most successful female jockey with a string of big-race wins to her name, also provided her with expert coaching.

Source: The Guardian August 01, 2019 13:41 UTC