Stayer with more promise out to raise his game at Moonee Valley before the Melbourne Cup.

Ciaron Maher admits that Middle Earth has been a headscratcher for him in returning the stayer that carried high expectations when imported to Australia from England last year to his best winning form.

Middle Earth took out the Australian Cup Prelude (2000m) at Flemington in March and this time takes on the Group 3 JRA Cup (2040m) at Moonee Valley on Saturday where blinkers are hoped to sharpen the five-year-old towards a Group 1 Melbourne Cup (3200m) start on November 4.

"I wanted to give him another run after I thought he was disappointing in the Caulfield Cup," Maher said of the run seven days ago.

"I expected him to run better and he has got it there but it is just a matter of getting it out of him.

"He's going to run with the blinkers on and all going well he will run in the Cup with the shades on.

"He just floated around at Caulfield and had a sharper piece of work on Thursday which was really just a stretch."

In the race prior, the Group 2 Fillies Classic (1600m), Maher is backing Salty Pearl up after finishing fourth in the Group 1 Thousand Guineas over the same distance last Saturday.

"I just thought this race was quite winnable and she has been very good at each start this prep."

The three-year-old filly is a daughter of Tagaloa whose major win came in the Group 1 Blue Diamond Stakes (1200m) for two-year-olds in 2020.