Irish eye off Melbourne Cup Could a four runner race at an Irish evening meeting be a major pointer to the Melbourne and Caulfield Cups? Don't be surprised if it does. Aidan O'Brien has made little secret of his reluctance to return Down Under after an unhappy experience in 2008, when he was hauled back to the Flemington Racecourse on Cup evening by stewards to answer questions about the performance of three of his runners in that year's Melbourne Cup. But his rapidly improving colt Ernest Hemingway signalled he could be a Cup contender with a win at The Curragh in late June and, in the early hours of this morning (Friday) at Leopardstown - just outside Dublin - he put in a performance that could see momentum build for him to be a visitor to Australia this spring. The lightly raced four-year old son of Galileo took out the 2400-metre Group Three Ballyroan Stakes, narrowly defeating yardstick Royal Diamond, trained and ridden by Johnny Murtagh. The latter, who won the Irish St Leger last year, has entries in the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups. Ernest Hemingway defeated Royal Diamond by five lengths when they met in the Curragh Cup (2800 metres) six weeks earlier, but the margin this time was only half a length, with the good quality mare Scintulla a further half-length away - third in the four-horse field. He's tough and he tries and he handles quick ground. Providing the ground is right he'd have a massive chance," O'Brien was quoted as saying after the race as he nominated the 2800 metre Irish St Leger as Ernest Hemingway's next target. The Irish St Leger is a race that has traditionally been a decent pointer to the Melbourne Cup and, for Murtagh, Australia is very much on the radar. He's run very well and it rode a good race. He'll appreciate going back up to 2800 metres and I'd imagine we'll meet the winner again in the Irish St Leger. We got a lot closer to him tonight than we did when he beat us in the Curragh Cup. We'll see about those entries he has in Australia after the Irish Leger," the trainer/jockey was reported saying after the event.