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Britain’s first female black jump jockey has made history by riding her first winner on only her fourth ride. Aamilah Aswat, 20, made her debut at Kempton in November on Guchen, trained by Grand National winning trainer Kim Bailey and Mat Nicholls as a 10lb claiming conditional.

Aamilah grew up in Gloucester and first learned to ride at St James’s City Farm in the city, under the tutelage of Imran Atcha, ahead of competing in pony races with the Pony Racing Authority.

She then joined the inaugural Riding A Dream Academy scholarship programme in 2021-22, where she was sponsored by the Jockey Club, which was set up to support young people from diverse ethnic communities into horse racing after Khadijah Mellah won the Magnolia Cup in 2019.

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She completed the Foundation Course at the British Racing School before joining the Bailey and Nicholls yard.

Ahead of her first ride she said: “I’ve been dreaming of this moment for so long, for over ten years, so it feels very surreal for it to actually be coming true.”

Aamilah finished fifth of ten in November and on her next two rides was eighth at Huntingdon and fourth at Haydock on the same horse.

Back at Kempton on Monday Guchen was a 9-1 chance for a 2m5f handicap hurdle in a field of 11 runners. Aamilah kept Guchen in touch with leaders, made her move with two hurdles to jump and held off the 6-4 favourite by a length and a quarter.

“Ever since I was young I was more drawn to Cheltenham and more drawn to the jumps,” she said afterwards. “Hopefully I can ride as many winners as I can and just get on with it.

“I can just ask the other jockeys for advice and they are all very nice. I am very appreciative of that.

“It gives others the message that they can do it as well and I’ll be following them every step of the way.”