Paterfamilias has been cut from 20-1 to 14-1 by World Sports Betting for the J & B Met after giving Mike Bass his third Premier Trophy in ten seasons at Kenilworth on Saturday. He remains a 16-1 shot with Betting World.

The six-year-old was always travelling like a winner and led a furlong out to justify 14-10 favouritism, scoring by a comfortable length and a quarter from last season’s Met runner-up Gold Onyx. The latter was having his first race for four and a half months and ran on most encouragingly.

Winning rider Grant van Niekerk reckons there is more to come and said: “Paterfamilias is a horse to follow for the Met. He ran very well here despite getting cut into behind.”

Candice Robinson added: “He was drawn wide in last season’s Met and hopefully he will have better luck this time. He has loads of ability, although he has had two tendon injuries, and I don’t see why he shouldn’t run in the L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate first.”

Gold Onyx has been clipped from 66-1 to 50-1 and S’Manga Khumalo said: “He wants further than this 1 800m but I was pleased with his run.”

Third-placed Helderberg Blue, 50-1 for the Met, will first tackle the Peninsula Handicap on January 9. Master’s Eye (now 150-1) would have finished a lot closer than fourth if he had not clipped the heels of the winner early on and then stumbled badly when doing the same to the runner-up just over a furlong out.

King Of Pain (eighth and now as big as 50-1) also had a hard luck story because he was repeatedly baulked when trying to get a clear run. But there were no such obvious excuses for Punta Arenas who managed only fifth and has been pushed out from 25-1 to 33-1.

Andre Nel had been planning the Victress Trophy for Ma Choix ever since Sabine Plattner’s mare gave him his first winner at the end of September. She fairly romped home at 20-1 with stand-in Brandon Lerena reckoning that this was his first visit to Kenilworth since the 2013 Met.

This was Nel’s first Graded success and he promptly upped the target, saying: “Ma Choix will get a proper penalty for this win so she may now have a go at the Maine Chance Paddock Stakes (Jan 9).”

Grant Behr, unplaced on Indaba, has been suspended for a week (Dec 16-22) for interference to Sublime Lady 300m out. Sensible Lover and Zante also suffered.

Justin Snaith made an impassioned plea for more competition in the two-year-old races after the Bernard Fayde’Herbe-ridden Var Ahead booked his Met day ticket by outclassing the opposition from the start in the first juvenile race of the season.

Snaith said: “At this time of year 60-70% of a trainer’s yard consists of two-year-olds and they are doing nothing. We need to get them running and the handicappers need to slow down on the handicapping of young horses so we can. Then owners can have a quick return like they do in Australia.”

By Michael Clower

Picture: Paterfamilias (Liesl King)