Section:GDN 1N PaGe:38 Edition Date:190807 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 6/8/2019 19:34 cYanmaGentaYellowbl
- The Guardian Wednesday 7 August 2019
(^38) Sport
Racing
Mellah overwhelmed by
interest after historic feat
Chris Cook
The 18-year-old has delivered
an inspiring story as the fi rst
jockey to race wearing a hijab
in Britain and then to win
F
ive days after Khadijah
Mellah had her headline-
grabbing moment in the
charity race at Glorious
Goodwood she has not
quite returned to earth.
“It’s basically taken over my life,”
she said yesterday , during one of
many interviews, demand for which
refl ects the worldwide interest in
the previously unknown 18-year-old
from Brixton who won a race at the
famously tricky circuit mere months
after climbing aboard a racehorse for
the fi rst time.
Khadijah became the fi rst jockey
to ride in – and win – a race in Britain
wearing a hijab. The job of steering
Haverland to glory in the Magnolia
Cup took not much more than a
minute. It is a minute that Khadijah
has been reliving endlessly since.“I’ve spent a lot of time talking to
people about my race, it’s been a
busy few days. I’ve been trying to
take it all in .”
Her mood appears to be happy but
on the edge of worn out. Certainly
Haverland has never faced such a test
of stamina as his rider is now tackling.
Great British Racing, the sport’s
promotional wing, has struggled to
keep track of the media interest but
has so far logged more than 1,000 TV
broadcasts and online pieces on top of
the print coverage that had Khadijah
on front pages on Friday.
She has made the news in France,
Turkey, Australia, Saudi Arabia,
Indonesia and South Africa. In this
country ITV has given the green light
to a documentary about her journey
in horse racing, to be called Riding
A Dream and due on screens in the
autumn.
Khadijah radiates a sense
of unreality that any of this is
happening to her, as well she may.
In January, impending A-level
exams were the biggest thing in
her calendar, before the ITV Racing
presenter Oli Bell, a patron of the
Ebony Riding School in Brixton
where she occasionally rode, started
to think she might be a suitable
candidate for an ambitious project.
One of the wholly unexpected
consequences was that Khadijah
found herself at the annual Regency
Ball at Goodwood House on
Thursday night, mixing with the rich
and famous and being introduced
to the singer Ellie Goulding. “It was
amazing, so grand.”
She takes as much relish in the
pleasure last week’s success gaveto those around her. “My parents
have been really happy, completely
over the moon for me. They’ve been
posting and sharing every single
article there is about me. They didn’t
initially think I could do it, so me
winning was a massive thing.
“My friends and family and even
distant relatives I haven’t been in
contact with for ages have all been
messaging me: ‘I’ve just seen you,
congratulations!’ My primary school
teacher contacted me, I hadn’t
spoken to in 10 years.”
Speaking earlier, on the Good
Morning Britain sofa, she had said:
“I can’t wait to hear a success story
where someone says, actually
Khadijah Mellah’s been a role model
to me.” It might be that such a person
shares a roof with her as her younger
brother Abdus, now 16, has hopes
of making it as a jockey and could
apply for an amateur’s licence next
year.
“I remember watching him [ina pony race] at Ascot and being so
proud of him. He didn’t do that well
but it was so cool to see him riding a
race and looking like a proper jockey.
He did say: ‘Yeah, I’m really proud of
you, but I’m a bit jealous.’”
Khadijah’s story is a gift for a sport
anxious to expand its horizons, as
is readily acknowledged by Rose
Grissell, who joined the British
Horseracing Authority last year as
head of diversity and inclusion.
Noting that Khadijah was the fi rst
jockey to wear a hijab while riding in
a race in Britain, Grissell sa id: “When
you get the fi rst of anything, it really
helps people to imagine the world
diff erently and inspires people to
defy expectations about how things
can change and what the world
should look like.
“ Her success will inspire many
diff erent types of people, and not
just now but also in future years,
whether that’s as a woman, a young
woman, a woman of colour or a
Muslim or people from a similar
background, growing up in an urban
area. To achieve what she did in such
a short space of time was incredible.
“ There’s a lot of work to do but
it will defi nitely have an impact.
She’s getting exposure much wider
beyond racing, which demonstrates
we are an inclusive sport, we
welcome everyone, from whatever
background. We’re one of the few
sports where you can have not only
men and women competing against
each other but also people with
a variety of diff erent disabilities
as well.
“We really are an inclusive sport
and Khadijah’s success helped us
spread that message far and wide.
The hope is that people who may
not have thought racing is for
them, or who may not have had any
knowledge of racing, may think
diff erently now. ”Brighton 2.00 Airbrush 2.30 Hariboux 3.00
Born To Reason 3.30 Jukebox Blues 4.00
Forseti 4.30 Warning Fire 5.00 Lady Morpheus
Bath 2.10 Swiss Chill (nap) 2.40 Modern British
Art 3.10 Ramatuelle 3.40 Mubariz 4.10 Lucky
Number 4.40 Blame It On Sally 5.10 Union Rose
Pontefract 2.20 Into The Zone 2.50 Three Fans
3.20 Mac Ailey 3.50 Juniors Fantasy
4.20 Volcanic Sky (nb) 4.50 Four Wheel Drive
5.20 Tukhoom 5.50 Magical Effect
Yarmouth 5.15 Perfect Charm 5.45 Sun Cuisine
6.15 Visor 6.45 Road To Paris 7.15 Scale Force
7.45 Scentasia 8.15 Caen Na Coille
Kempton 5.30 Cashel 6.00 Dubai Warrior
6.30 Desert Palms 7.00 Illumined 7.30 The
Pinto Kid 8.00 Land Of Oz 8.30 AirwavesChris Cook’s tips
▲ Khadijah Mellah won the Magnolia
Cup at Goodwood on HaverlandRugby unionTe’o’s England
omission casts
doubts on his
World Cup spot
Gerard MeagherBen Te’o is a surprise omission from
the England squad preparing to face
Wales on Sunday, casting doubt on his
place at the World Cup. Eddie Jones
has also left Mike Brown and Ben
Spencer out of his 33-man squad for
England’s fi rst World Cup warm-up
match, the latter’s exclusion mean-
ing a likely debut for Willi Heinz at
Twickenham.
Jones has suggested that those left
out may still go to Japan but the fact
he names his fi nal squad of 31 just 24
hours after England face Wales does
not appear to bode well for Te’o nor
Brown, Spencer and Alex Dombrandt,
who has also been omitted.
Jones has tweaked the World Cup
training squad he announced a month
ago but dropping Te’o from this week’s
camp in Bagshot would be perplexing
if he is to be included on Monday given
that he is not attached to a club, having
left Worcester this summer. “Players
excluded from being involved in this
camp are naturally disappointed but
may get another opportunity so they
must be ready,” Jones said.
Piers Francis and the uncapped
Joe Marchant have been preferred to
Te’o, along with Jonathan Joseph, who
returned to form and fi tness towards
the end of last season. Marchant and
Heinz are among fi ve uncapped players
selected and with Ben Youngs the only
other scrum-half picked the New Zea-
land-born 32-year-old looks set for a
Test debut. Heinz’s Gloucester team-
mate Danny Cipriani, who was not
included in the recent Treviso training
camp , has again been overlooked.
Ruaridh McConnochie , Jack Single-
ton and Lewis Ludlam are the others
without Test experience hoping to
impress while Mako Vunipola has been
included but is not in contention to
face Wales despite progressing well
from hamstring surgery. Similarly Jack
Nowell is in camp to continue his reha-
bilitation on an injured ankle. Brad
Shields, who fl ew home from Treviso
early with a foot injury, has not been
included though England are hopeful
he will be fi t for the World Cup.
Jones said: “We have worked hard
and now move into a four-game prepa-
ration phase where the development
of the team tactically is paramount. By
the time we fl y out on 8 September we
will be ready to win the Rugby World
Cup. We are not there yet but we have
four games to get ready.”Forwards Cole, Cowan-Dickie, Curry, Ewels,
Genge, George, Itoje, Kruis, Launchbury,
Lawes, Ludlam, Marler, Sinckler, Singleton,
Underhill, B Vunipola, M Vunipola, Williams,
Wilson
Backs Cokanasiga, Daly, Farrell, Ford, Francis,
Heinz, Joseph, Marchant, May, McConnochie,
Slade, Tuilagi, Watson, YoungsEngland squad
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