Grade I winner Bandini has been purchased to stand at a new farm owned by Shawahed Corp. near Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. The 9-year-old son of Fusaichi Pegasus will be the farm’s first stallion. The deal was negotiated by Will Barrons Bloodstock.
Bandini, who stood at John T.L. Jones III’s Walmac Farm near Lexington, ranks 19th on this year’s second-crop sires by progeny earnings. His 16 juvenile winners of 2011 include stakes winners Defy Gravity and Midnight Serenade.
Bandini is out of the stakes-placed Dixieland Band mare Divine Dixie, a half sister to successful sire Stormy Atlantic.
As a race horse, Bandini won the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes (gr. I) at Keeneland and the Skip Away Handicap (gr. III) at Gulfstream Park. He earned $676,380.
Barrons purchased nine mares at the Keeneland November breeding stock sale for the new venture, including grade I winner Tweedside and grade II winner All American Bertie.