Regional Dinner with the High Sheriff

Join our Regional Dinner where we’ll be celebrating the newly appointed High Sheriff of Cambridgeshire.

We are also delighted to welcome Khadijah Mellah, the first hijab-wearing jockey in a competitive British horse race and Muslim Sports Woman of the Year, as a guest speaker.

Khadijah Mellah’s Story

Khadijah was always keen to ride, and after her mother saw a leaflet in the local mosque offering riding at the Ebony Horse Club in Brixton, she started riding in 2012.

She began riding a thoroughbred horse in April 2019, whilst being filmed for a documentary (Riding A Dream), primarily aimed at showing the diversity of activities available to disadvantaged communities in London. At the age of 18, she was also sitting her A-levels at the time and was tackling the struggles of training and education throughout Ramadan.

Khadijah was chosen to represent the club at a charity race, after undertaking two months of intensive training at the British Racing School at Newmarket.

The Magnolia Cup, is an all-women charity race and was held on 1 August 2019 at Goodwood Racecourse.

Khadijah was both the youngest and by far the least-experienced jockey of the 12-strong field, but won in a nail biting photo-finish, competing against the likes of Victoria Pendleton, Luisa Zissman and Vogue Williams.

She went on to study Mechanical Engineering at Brighton University. In November 2019 she won The Times Young Sportswoman of the Year for her achievements and has just won Muslim Sports Woman of the Year 2024.

“Winning the Magnolia Cup at the Qatar Goodwood Festival was a whirlwind experience and something that has changed my life immensely. The fact that the documentary of my story, Riding A Dream, has gone on to win Best British Short Film is totally surreal.

At the time, I was looking up to role models to help inspire me and get me through the gruelling training. So it was incredible to then receive messages from young women and girls in particular, saying that I had inspired them to do something out of their comfort zone. It is so important to me to encourage people to be determined and pursue a sport to a higher level despite what other people may think. My hope is that my experiences will encourage more people to get involved in racing.

I know for sure that I have broken some perceptions of a young Muslim woman and it is something that I am proud of and will continue to do. When I was younger, I didn’t think that getting into racing would be an option for me or someone of my background. There was no one that looked like me. I hope now that I have joined the racing industry and I have been a success story that young people like me will also see there is an opportunity for them to join that racing community.”

Nick Luck 

We will also be joined by Nick Luck, English racing broadcaster, who previously presented Channel 4 Racing.

Nick is part of the NBC Breeders Cup team and is eight times Horserace Writers’ & Photographers’ Association Broadcaster of the Year.

In 2017, he became the BBC Equestrian commentator and has since covered the Olympia Horse Show, Badminton Horse Trials, Burghley Horse Trials and the Olympic Games for the BBC.

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