Some people are born with their destiny so indelibly mapped out for them that, try as they might in life, there's no way they will ever quite get away from it.

So to imagine Wally Pyrah spending his life surrounded by anything but bookmaking would be like imagining Michelangelo the hairdresser, Liberace the bullfighter or Kieren Fallon the brain surgeon.

It's possible to believe he was suckled on horse milk, weaned on Sporting Life and spent his early days kipping in his bookie father's satchel.

The only time he was away from the racing world was for his unsuccessful teenage trials for Crystal Palace FC.