Robert Cooper, Sky Sports Racing’s roving reporter, remembers those far off days when his mellifluous voice first floated into betting shops

Was it really 40 years ago that Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne bit the head off a bat? It seems like yesterday, as does my first day working in the racing industry. On March 15th 1982 I rolled up at the headquarters of Mecca Bookmakers just off Bond Street in the thrumming epicentre of London’s West End.Osbourne required a series of rabies jabs when he came off stage at Des Moines, Iowa; my daily dose was a freshly minted copy...