IF Blue Jack can land Saturday’s Betfred.com Temple Stakes at Haydock it will be the first real statement of intent from trainer Tom Dascombe and his Manor House Stables.

Dascombe’s modern and plush training facility deep in the Cheshire countryside has been financed jointly by Manchester United forward Michael Owen and Betfair founder Andrew Black.

Owen will always be a high-profile figure and on bringing Dascombe up from his previous Lambourn base last year, the pronouncements made were of turning Manor House Stables into one able to compete at the top level of Flat racing.

All at the Malpas yard are realistic enough to know that playing in the ‘Premier League’ of Flat racing on a consistent basis will be a slow process. But the money and effort put in so far show they mean business.

The excellent facility which has a new five-furlong gallop and houses almost 90 horses at present is a work in progress. There are plans for a swimming pool, more new barns to house future equine talent and state-of-the-art veterinary facilities.

It provides a big opportunity for Dascombe and his owners to achieve their goals.

He is delighted to be able to train at the yard and said: “It is a lovely place and we have been here about eight or nine months.

“We have got a long way to go, but we have started the first part of the project.

“I came here because it was the opportunity to get better horses. Michael and Bert (Andrew Black) said that if we did this they would support it. We ended up buying horses like Blue Jack who have improved. Hopefully it will give me the opportunity to train better quality horses.

“Michael comes in about once a week, has a look at the horses and what we are doing. He is mad keen on his racing, but we don’t see an awful lot of him.”

He added: “We want to get Group winners. We want to be in the Premier League of trainers.

“People have said are you looking to take on Godolphin or the others. It is silly chat really.

“We just want to get horses and be competitive in the better races and at the same time train winners. Bert and Michael have made a huge investment but if you look at it in the grand scheme of things it is not that big in comparison to some.

“We are realistic. We want to do as best we can. It is going to take four or five years to start achieving and be where we want to be.”

Winners are the only way to compete. And Blue Jack will bid to provide one in Saturday’s five-furlong Group Two contest.

Bought for £65,000 at the Newmarket sales by ex-Liverpool striker Owen and Black out of Willie Muir’s stable, the consistent five-year-old has a progressive profile. He won four decent sprint handicaps for Muir last summer. And on his debut for Dascombe landed another at Newbury.

He built on that with an excellent third in the Group Three Palace House Stakes at Newmarket behind two of Saturday’s reopposing rivals – Equiano and Borderlescott.

Blue Jack is a best-priced 8-1 with Ladbrokes for the Haydock feature. And Dascombe expects a bold showing again. He said: “Blue Jack has done little wrong since he came to us. I thought he had a bad draw at Newmarket. And I thought he ran a great race.

“On Saturday of course we have got to try and reverse the placings with the two horses who beat us at Newmarket, and that is going to be difficult. But he is fit and well and as long as we get a central draw and we can just pop out and have him a bit closer from the start we will have a chance.

“It would be the biggest win since I have been here. But you have got to remember that although it would be great to win on Saturday, it is not all about one race – it is about the season.

“We bought Blue Jack hoping we’d have a nice Saturday handicapper and within two starts he has proved he is Group class. We have got be pleased with that if he continues his progress.”

More than half of Dascombe’s string are two-year-olds.

The former jump jockey has done well in the past with juveniles, and he is hopeful he can gain more success this season.

Julius Geezer was his first two-year-old winner of the campaign at Chester’s May Meeting.

He said: “It is two-year-old based at the moment. But not by design. It is just by the way it worked. We decided when we came here that we would try and up the quality.

“So we have brought in some fresh proven horses and we brought in a lot of unproven two-year-olds that I would like to think that over the next few years we would keep the best ones. Then we will have a nice mix of five-year-olds down to two-year-olds.

“The horses have been slow to come to hand this year. We have been learning about the place, learning about the gallops and we are certainly more forward now than we were this time last month. We have had a couple of two-year-old winners now.”

On Julius Geezer, he added: “He won well. He’ll probably go to Royal Ascot. We’ll take in the National Stakes at Sandown and depending on how he gets on there he would go to Royal Ascot if he was successful as Sandown. I don’t think they will all be ready for Royal Ascot. We’ll have one or two, but come July and August we’ll start seeing the better ones coming out.”

TODAY’S NAP: Gala Casino Star (3.25pm Haydock).