A half-brother to Japanese champion Kurofune and Grade 2 winner Bella Bellucci brought about $2.3 million Monday as the Japan Racing Horse Association's July sale-topping yearling.

Japanese construction industry executive Riichi Kondo paid 245 million Japanese yen for the colt, a bay son of Agnes Tachyon and Blue Avenue. Katsumi Yoshida's Northern Farm consigned the colt to the session, the first of three days that make up the July sale on the Japanese island of Hokkaido. The other two sessions are devoted to foals.

A star was born at Longchamp on Monday as Montmartre crushed a high-class field of 3-year-olds in the Group 1, $955,000 Grand Prix de Paris. So impressive was the victory that Ladbrokes immediately installed Montmartre as its new 4-1 favorite for the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.

Freddy Head and Davy Bonilla collected their second Group 1 prize in four days at Chantilly when Tamayuz held off Raven's Pass and Rio de la Plata to win the $636,000 Prix Jean Prat.

Moonstone gave Aidan O'Brien his 13th Group 1 triumph of the year at the Curragh as she outdueled stablemate Ice Queen in the $795,000 Irish Oaks.

Second to Look Here in the English Oaks five weeks ago, Moonstone was not only winning her maiden in this 1 1/2-mile classic, she was providing O'Brien with his thrid straight Irish Oaks. The victory also gave O'Brien a sweep of all four of Ireland's 3-year-old classics as he had taken the Irish 2000 Guineas with Henrythenavigator, the Irish 1000 with Halfway to Heaven, and the Irish Derby with Frozen Fire.

Montmartre can hit the heights Monday in a competitive renewal of the $954,000 Grand Prix de Paris, a 1 1/2-mile Group 1 contest for 3-year-olds that highlights Longchamp's Bastille Day celebrations.

Archipenko could be on his way to Chicago for the Arlington Million after taking the Group 2, $199,000 Summer Mile Stakes at Ascot on Saturday. His three-quarter-length victory over longshot Barshiba was his third straight and comes on the heels of a Group 1 triumph at Sha Tin in the 1 1/4-mile Queen Elizabeth II Cup.

Trained by South African master Mike de Kock, Archipenko was allowed to get away at a generous 11-1. At the same time, bettors sent defending title holder Cesare off as the 3-2 choice but he disappointed his backers in finishing third, one length behind the winner.

Aidan O'Brien saddles six of the 14 runners who will line up for the $789,000 Irish Oaks at the Curragh on Sunday, the most prominent among them the English Oaks runner-up Moonstone, a Dalakhani filly who is the 2-1 favorite for the 1 1/2-mile classic even though she is still a maiden.

A half-sister to L'Ancresse, runner-up in the Irish Oaks and Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf, Moonstone was 3 3/4 lengths behind Look Here at Epsom, but she was 2 3/4 lengths clear of third-place finisher Katiyra that day.

Raven's Pass, banging hard at the top level all his career, can finally break through the Group 1 barrier at Chantilly on Sunday in the one-mile $631,000 Prix Jean Prat, in which he will face 15 rivals from four countries.

Raven's Pass, trained by John Gosden, was second to the world's highest rated miler, Henrythenavigator, by three-quarters of a length in Royal Ascot's St. James's Palace Stakes last time. Jimmy Fortune, who teamed with Gosden to ride Lucarno to victory in the Princess of Wales's Stakes on Thursday, has the ride.

Marchand d’Or produced a blistering late run to catch US Ranger at the wire in a scintillating renewal of the $791,000 July Cup at Newmarket on Friday, giving his trainer, Freddy Head, the distinction of having both trained and ridden the winner of this six-furlong Group 1 sprint.

NEW YORK - With 12 Group 1 victories under his belt through July 11, Aidan O'Brien is well ahead of schedule to break Bobby Frankel's world mark of 25 Group 1 or Grade 1 triumphs in a single year. Frankel set that record in 2003 when he broke the record of 23 that O'Brien had set just two years earlier.

William Hill is offering a stingy 4-6 for the master of Ballydoyle to break Frankel's record, but the doubting Thomases at Betfred have him at