Mortified's trainer Chris O'Brien was left wondering "what might have been" after his outstanding bitch won Saturday night's Paul Wheeler Celebration Free-For-All in fastest time of the night.
Mortified led throughout from box eight and covered the 520m in an electrifying 29.37, quicker than the 29.44 Simply Limelight recorded in taking out the $300,000 group one Ladbrokes Golden Easter Egg final.
O'Brien's greyhound had done exactly the same on Easter Egg semi-final night, when she led all the way to land another Free-For-All in 29.40, .04sec inside the time standard for the group one semis, again posted by Simply Limelight.
But Mortified was bundled out of the Easter Egg series when she finished fourth in She's A Pearl's slowest heat, bungling the start from box six before being pushed off the track at the first turn.
In her 29.40 victory on Egg semi night, April 1, Mortified rocketed over the early splits in 5.32, 13.59 and 17.66 before remarkably duplicating each of those sectional figures last Saturday.
Mortified is now likely to chase that elusive group one success by heading to Melbourne for heats of the Sandown Sapphire Crown on May 11, a week before the $100,000 to the winner 515m final.
O'Brien took Mortified to Melbourne for the group one Australian Cup earlier this year and after a slashing heat win she was one of the favourites for the February 25 final at The Meadows.
But she dwelt at the start and found trouble before finishing down the course in the race won by Fernando Mick.
"The Sapphire Crown is almost certainly her next assignment although the Brother Fox at Dubbo on May 13 and 20 is another option,'' O'Brien said.
"With $50,000 to the winner it's worth only half the prize for the Sapphire Crown but Dubbo is a fair bit closer to home than Melbourne.''
O'Brien is also upbeat about the prospects of Mortified's litter sister Quantifiable, who resumed from a spell for more than three months to win over 297m at Dapto on Thursday.
Quantifable won over 520m at Wentworth Park last preparation but has returned in even better form and stopped the clock on Thursday in 16.70, just .04sec outside course record figures.
Until six years ago Peter Mattress had spent two decades as sales manager of an electrical company but he switched to training greyhounds and landed his biggest win on Saturday night.
Rivello, trained by Mattress for her owner-breeder Peter Spiteri, surprised by running down hot favourite Oro Rojo to snare the $25,000 first prize in the Ausure Ultra Sense final at Wentworth Park.
"That is the biggest race I have won as a trainer,'' Mattress said.
"And I must admit to being surprised because in the heats on March 31 each of Rivello's seven final rivals won in faster time.
"But she has been gradually improving and getting stronger at the end of 520m.
"Her problem has often been that because she runs wide, her opponents keep getting underneath her.
"Rivello was formerly trained by Andy Lord, who won Saturday night's Gartelmann Wines New Sensation with Tommy Kade, another of Peter Spiteri's greyhounds.
"I was training a few dogs for Peter when he contacted me and explained that because Andy had too many dogs he needed to place Rivello elsewhere and asked me to take her.''
Success breeds success and Peter Mattress has 19 kennels on his Jilliby property and said "they are all full.''
