Raise The Flag bucked the trend at the New Zealand Bloodstock festival sale on Monday, and the White Robe Lodge-based stallion may have gained some new female friends for next season.
In a sale that was flat in patches, with three yearlings selling for just $200 each, Raise The Flag stood up well, ending up fourth on the sires' list behind new sire Swiss Ace and established sires Bachelor Duke and Elusive City.
Four of the five yearlings in the White Robe Lodge draft were sold at auction, while the fifth - the Raise The Flag-Of The Essence colt - was $1000 short of the reserve and is likely to be sold in the coming days.
White Robe Lodge stud manager Wayne Stewart was particularly pleased with the $41,000 gained for the Raise The Flag-Stage Flash colt purchased by Marcus Corban Bloodstock. Corban does much buying for Cambridge Stud, but Stewart believes Corban may race the colt himself.
Perseverance paid off for Raymond Connors, the trainer of Blood Brotha, who is closely related to the Raise The Flag-Living Doll colt. Connors had tried to convince the Stewarts to sell the colt to them at Bulls as they took their draft up to Karaka, but ended up buying him at the sale for $22,000 through Kevin Myers.
''They were good results,'' Stewart said.
''We were very pleased - there were a lot of good comments about them and how good they looked.
''We got quite a few mares booked in while we were here, just on what people had seen and a few people are going to fly down and have a look at Raise The Flag on the farm, so it was a really good exercise.
The festival sale - the third-tier sale behind the premier and select sales - was down from $15,300 in 2012 to $12,117 in the averages, while the median dropped from $12,000 to $8000.
White Robe Lodge
Draft results
• Raise The Flag-Stage Flash colt, $41,000.
• Raise The Flag-Living Doll colt, $22,000
• Raise The Flag-Star of Mulwala colt, $21,000
• Raise The Flag-Pernote colt, $9000
• Raise The Flag-Of The Essence colt, passed in.
