Marvellous Khadijah Mellah sends out a powerful message with her famous triumph

Very little that happens in our parish really matters but this did. It mattered because it reached out of the parish. When Khadijah Mellah finished the Magnolia Cup in front, an image was painted not just of what racing should be but of what racing can be. It was a beautiful picture on a beautiful day.

Glorious Goodwood's charity race has raised £1.2 million for great causes since its inception in 2011, yet there has been sniggering and smirking, sometimes for perfectly understandable reasons.

There have been occasions when it seemed like a society ball on horseback, and there have been days when it felt safest to watch through your fingers. However, if the Magnolia Cup has sometimes seemed a bit of a joke, on this memorable day it absolutely had the last laugh.

"It's a dream result – and it wasn't fixed!" said Goodwood's owner the Duke of Richmond as he came down the steps to the winner's enclosure. He was smiling and so was everyone else, no one more so than Mellah herself, who did a bit of crying but did much more beaming, quite rightly, too, for this was a day of delight.

So many people had helped her but it was her triumph, one from which many others, and hopefully also a sport, may benefit.

Khadijah Mellah (right) wins the Magnolia Cup on HaverlandCredit: Edward Whitaker

There is an enormous Muslim involvement in British racing. This very meeting has for most of its life been known as Glorious Goodwood but now, thanks to an ongoing investment worth millions of pounds, it is branded as the Qatar Goodwood Festival.

It was at this meeting 42 years ago that Sheikh Mohammed owned his first Group race winner. The Maktoum family and their associates, plus supporters from other Islamic nations, have pumped cash and passion into the industry but British Muslim faces, aside from stable staff, have been insufficiently seen on racecourses. Thank goodness, then, for Khadijah and a face that from the second she scored aboard Haverland was certain to appear on television screens, websites and newspapers, far and wide.

She is not the first British Muslim to ride a winner in this country, for in 2005 Saleem Golam shared the champion apprentice title with Hayley Turner. Khadijah is, nonetheless, a pioneer, the first woman to ride competitively on a British track wearing a hijab. Indicative of the fact the 18-year-old has a passion for sport and a competitive streak, it was a hijab that featured a Nike logo.

The reception she received made your heart sing. As it sang it also swelled, for this story is so special. Racing's new star lives in south London and learned to ride in Brixton at the Ebony Horse Club, the charity that connects inner city kids with horses and so often makes their lives better.

It was as recently as April 10 that she first sat on a racehorse and it was even more recently that her serious training commenced. The journey began on June 17 but it did not end on August 1 as Khadijah has ambitions to become an amateur jockey.

She is not alone. Her brother Abdus rides out for Chris Wall and hopes to apply for his licence early next year. "I started riding in Newmarket and it was bloody brilliant," he said.

He was full of praise for the sport and for Khadijah, as was the pair's younger sister, Tuka. "I have been waiting for this day for so long and always knew she could do it," she said. "I would see her before bed and she would make loads of prayers for it. She has worked so hard for this and she deserves it."

No one would have argued with that, certainly not Ebony manager Naomi Howgate, who first taught Khadijah to ride, which she did down the Goodwood hill against admiring rivals who included Olympian Victoria Pendleton and the Racing Post's Kitty Trice.

Khadijah Mellah enters Goodwood's winner's enclosure with an arm aloft aboard HaverlandCredit: Alan Crowhurst (Getty Images)

"At Ebony it's not a competition, but I told Khadijah I wanted her to forget everything I had told before," said Howgate. "I told her to go out there and win. She rode that race like a pro. She was just brilliant.

"Our young people often face a lot of challenges and are not from households that have loads of money. She has just proved it doesn't matter what your background is, what your religion is or how old you are. She has proved you can do anything you want if you put your mind to it."

Khadijah's mind had been distracted on Wednesday when she met Frankie Dettori, the other racing celebrity who has made a few recent headlines. "I bumped into him yesterday, " she said. "He gave me a hug and it was like, oh my God, this is really happening."

Oh my God, her God, their God, your God, it really did. On a very lovely day at Goodwood the sun finally shone and we all felt a little bit warmer. Khadijah, the young jockey in the Nike hijab, was the reason why.

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