From South America to the East End of London, via New York and Liverpool, is not the usual route for a racehorse.

But then Casamayor was not your average thoroughbred.

Foaled in Argentina in 1970, Casamayor, a bay son of Cullanhall, first made his mark as a sprinter – he won over four furlongs as a three-year-old – before shipping to North America and racing at Belmont Park and Saratoga on the New York circuit, later trying his hand over jumps.

American businessman and racehorse owner Raymond Guest, who was the United States Ambassador to Ireland during Lyndon Johnson’s presidency and related to Winston Churchill, purchased the gelding and subsequently sent him to Britain for a National Hunt career.

Based with Peter Bailey, Casamayor found his forte in staying chases, finishing third in the 1978 Topham Chase at Aintree and filling fourth position behind Alverton in the 1979 Cheltenham Gold Cup, the race in which Tied Cottage fell at the final fence.

Two attempts at the Grand National in 1980 and 1981 proved fruitless though Guest had already captured the Liverpool showpiece with L’Escargot in 1975.

Following the conclusion of his career under Rules, he came into the orbit of John Bentley, who had been looking for a horse to take point-to-pointing.

“I wanted a ‘schoolmaster’ and was told about a horse who had a few miles on the clock but would be good for the job,” explains Bentley, a retired baker from Sussex who fell in love with horses and racing as a child.

“So, I went to Peter Bailey’s stable with Billy Champion – a cousin of Grand National-winning jockey Bob Champion – and saw the horse. I paid £2,000 for him.

“On my first ride on Casamayor, I fell off him at the third fence – I saw a stride, but he said you should leave it to me! The next time I rode him we won.

“He fulfilled what I needed as a point-to-pointer – I raced him eight or nine times in total. However, he then developed a joint issue, so I retired him.”

The strapping Casamayor, while no longer able to race, still had plenty to offer, like so many ex-racehorses, and Bentley knew exactly where he would thrive.

He says: “I enjoyed my hunting and I’d loved to have taken that route, but he wouldn’t jump a twig out hunting! If there was a low log lying across the ground, he’d refuse to jump it. It was very strange.

“But I knew when I rode him on busy roads he wouldn’t bat an eyelid at traffic – he was so rocksteady. I thought he’d make a superb police horse, especially considering his size – he was 17 hands.

“I rang up the Superintendent who ran the police training centre in Surrey and said I’d like to gift them a horse. He said they didn’t take thoroughbreds, but I persuaded him to come out and look at Casamayor. He came a week later, said what a lovely big horse he was and that he’d give him a go. Off he went in the horsebox.

“Two weeks later, the Superintendent called me and said the horse was unbelievable. It would usually take months to train a police horse and this horse went straight out within a couple of weeks!

“He went to the barracks in Hampstead Heath and because of his fame – he’d run in the Grand National and other big races – everyone wanted to ride him.

“When there was a state visit from the president of Mexico, Casamayor was picked to lead the procession, ridden by the Chief Superintendent!”

State visits are perhaps at the more sedate end of jobs for police horses, as anyone who’s ever been to a big football match in Britain can attest. Casamayor would later find himself in far more hostile settings.

“In 1986 there was the Wapping dispute with the print unions – it got quite violent,” says Bentley, who also hunted with the Fernie in Leicestershire.

“Casamayor was in the middle of it; I’ve got a picture of him with blinkers on leading a charge of police horses!

“He also took part in Aldaniti’s sponsored charity walk in aid of the Bob Champion Cancer Trust.

“Later on, he was stabled in Hyde Park. One day after visiting the farrier he was walking back to the stable when he collapsed and died from a heart attack. He was with the police for five or six years.

“There aren’t many horses with that kind of story.”

As for Bentley’s story, his love of horses was passed down to his children, including son Harry, a Group 1-winning jockey now based in Hong Kong.

He adds: “I used to take Harry out riding with me all the time when he was young.

“He was very small and light and one day I said to him, ‘you could be a jockey one day’.”