Khadijah Mellah, the hijab-wearing newcomer who caused a sensation by riding the Magnolia Cup winner at Goodwood, was officially ruled out of the contest just weeks beforehand. The moment she failed her first riding test at the British Racing School is at the heart of a thrilling documentary about her foray into racing, Riding A Dream, to be shown on ITV at 12.15pm on Saturday, right after the Rugby World Cup final.
“That was the lowest low ever,” we are told by Mellah, who was by then months into a crash course in jockeyship, which she had juggled with preparing for her A levels and fasting for Ramadan. Her setback can’t have been much fun, either, for Oli Bell, who set Khadijah this challenge and arranged to film it as a means of promoting Brixton’s Ebony Horse Club, where he is the patron and she began to ride. Bell got word that his documentary might be headed for the rocks when she called him in tears at around 1am in Royal Ascot week, hours before he was due to present ITV’s Opening Show.
“We’ve got a really bad film here,” he recalls telling his fellow producers at the time, but the opposite has turned out to be true. Mellah worked hard before a second test, a fortnight before Glorious Goodwood, and sailed through on her way to beating her celebrity rivals in the charity race aboard a 25-1 shot. The whole story was caught on camera, including the race itself from Mellah’s point of view, the footage differing from the familiar jockey-cam material in that there is substantially more excited squealing than one would expect from, say, Ryan Moore.
Mellah is engagingly down-to-earth. When the Duchess of Cornwall attended the first screening of Riding A Dream at the Ritzy Cinema in Brixton last night, she chirpily addressed her from the stage as “Camilla”. In the documentary, she is never more likeable than when describing her bond with Haverland, her low-rated mount. “He only won one race and it was ages ago,” she says, but she gets on with him, which could not be said of a more talented stablemate who “threw me off twice”. At Goodwood, she is frustrated that she can’t spend the build-up to the race in the stables with her equine friend. “Where the boy at?” she asks.
Riding A Dream is a highly enjoyable outsider story with a serious point at its core about racing’s need to make itself approachable for entire communities that know it not. “No one here ever goes racing,” Mellah says over shots of her family and friends celebrating Eid Al Fitr.
On Saturday, the telling of her story will also give racing a prime TV slot that could gain it new, young fans. Watching it last night, I loved the way Riding A Dream introduces the sport with moments of drama rapidly intercut like something from Oliver Stone’s high-powered NFL drama Any Given Sunday.
Mellah and Bell have really achieved something and I recommend making time to admire their work. You can watch a trailer here.
Tuesday’s best bets
Catterick’s last Flat fixture of the year will, of course, be staged on heavy going, so I’m surprised there’s not a bit more enthusiasm for the nap. Black Friday (3.10), a 13-2 shot, could not have looked happier on the soft ground at Musselburgh last time, when he beat 11 rivals by daylight.
That was his first success but he hasn’t had many chances on deep going and his only other decent run this year was, not coincidentally, on heavy going at Carlisle. He’s still on a fair mark. I just hope Sean Davis doesn’t pull the trigger quite so early as Jason Hart did last time, bearing in mind the finish is stiffer here.
Earlier, The Grey Zebedee (1.00) is another who should be well suited by this ground. Tim Easterby’s youngster won here in August on the only occasion this year when he got proper soft going and is holding his form well. He’s 9-4.
Chepstow stages a jumps card and Another Emotion (1.45) can prove that he’s made for chasing at 5-1 or thereabouts. Guardia Top (4.00) gets a lot of weight for age as a three-year-old in the handicap hurdle and beat a subsequent winner when scoring in the mud at Perth last month. She’s 3-1.
Catterick
12.30 The Bell Conductor 1.00 The Grey Zebedee (nb) 1.30 Bo Samraan 2.05 Zip 2.35 Kensington Art 3.10 Black Friday (nap) 3.45 Moonlit Sands 4.15 Chickenfortea
Chepstow
1.15 Sandy Boy 1.45 Another Emotion 2.20 Fado Des Brosses 2.50 Georgian Firebird 3.25 Truckers Lodge 4.00 Guardia Top 4.30 Plenty In The Tank
Southwell
4.45 Thahab Ifraj 5.15 Superiority 5.45 Grazeon Roy 6.15 Ollivander 6.45 Arzaak 7.15 Royal Dancer 7.45 Healing Power 8.15 Suitcase 'N' Taxi
