Mighty Bandit is being aimed at an Aintree Grade One after scoring the third leg of a hat-trick over fences at Doncaster on Saturday.
The Warren Greatrex-trained six-year-old made headlines in fetching €420,000 when Caldwell Construction-owned horses were dispersed in 2024, and although he had since won and run with credit plenty of times he had not quite hit the heights expected of a horse sold for such a sum.
A switch to chasing has seen him come into his own, however, with a second-placed run behind Mambonumberfive on debut followed by three victories by increasingly large margins.
The latest was a 17-length rout on Town Moor that is likely to lead to either one of the Maghull or the Manifesto Novices’ Chases at Aintree’s Grand National meeting in April.
“He seems to be progressing very well, he’s got his confidence up and he jumps very well,” said Greatrex.
“What’s brilliant is that he’s had this price tag on his head and he’s now looking like it’s not so silly, he’s pretty much at Grade One level for a novice.
“He was rated 142 the other day and he won by 17 lengths, he’s going to be in the 150s now and that puts you in the Grade One bracket.
“People may have thought ‘what the hell are they doing?’ and he has taken a bit of time, but it just proves the ability has always been there.
“I probably put him in some big races because of his price tag and he probably wasn’t ready, but he’s definitely ready now.
“We’ll look at Aintree, he’ll be entered in the two-mile and two-mile-four novice chases, he’s riding a crest of a wave and I wouldn’t put it past him at all to go there and do the business.”
