Racing Foundation funded Riding a Dream Academy subject of new BBC documentary

18 Mar 2022

A new documentary about the Riding a Dream Academy has been released this week on the BBC.

Sporting Heros: Make me a Jockey follows the experiences of two young people taking their first steps into the racing industry as part of the Khadijah Mellah scholarship.

The scholarship, which is funded by the Racing Foundation as part of the Riding a Dream Academy, supports eight talented riders from underrepresented background looking for a career in racing.

A residential week and eleven weekend sessions make up the year-long course which takes place at the British Racing School in Newmarket.

The two young people who feature in the documentary, Grace and Eesa, were recruited for the scholarship from the Urban Equestrian Academy, a riding school in Leicester also supported by Racing Foundation funding.

Khadijah Mellah became the first British Muslim woman to ride in, and win, a British horse race when she won the Magnolia Cup at Goodwood racecourse in 2019.

The Riding a Dream Academy aims are to help other young people from underrepresented groups and communities and non-equestrian backgrounds get involved in the sport.

The documentary is available to watch on BBC iPlayer by clicking the link below:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0015hcr/we-are-england-sporting-heroes-make-me-a-jockey?page=1