I come from a working-class family.

My parents separated when I was young and from what I know my mother moved to Manchester and started a new family leaving me to grow up in Salford with my father and, from the age of 14, my grandparents after my father sadly passed away.

He was a hard-working man and spent his life bringing me up to be an honest and hard-working young man and I’ll never forget what he taught me.

From that point on I spent every single day with my grandmother; she was my rock, my best friend.

She was by far, the most amazing woman on the planet.

When I was 16 I got through college and started working in my local supermarket stacking shelves and this went on for years.

Then we hired a new guy from Cork in Ireland, Mike.

He was crazy about horse racing and smart with it too.

I’m talking about the late 70’s, the good old days of Red Rum and jockeys like Bob Champion and Eddie Macken.

I’m hoping you all know who I’m talking about!?

There was money to be made and Mike had a very clever system for exploiting that fact.

Being close he used to tell me what to look for when picking winners and for me it was just enjoyment watching him get excited about the races as they got underway and he had the most almighty scream when he won I remember that.

I think the whole store remembers that!