Litter sisters Glorified and Wellness, whose wins at Wentworth Park last Thursday night have earned them a tilt at Saturday night's heats of the group 1 Ladbrokes National Futurity, were put into the Greyhound Adoption Program in early 2024 and almost became family pets.
But in a remarkable turnaround of their fortunes, Glorified scored her fourth win in seven starts with a slick all-the-way 520m win in 29.87 last Thursday while Wellness jumped in front and wasn't headed in notching her sixth win in 16 appearances, clocking 29.98.
The 26-month-old pair are trained on the south coast by Ruth King for Mario Marsh, a retired 36 year veteran of the police force who bought them as puppies from breeder Chris O'Brien.
"While in the police force in the late 1990s I was transferred to the Lake Illawarra area and as a welcome my fellow officers took me to Dapto dogs for a night out,'' Marsh recalled.
"A group of us threw in $50 each and finished up winning around $3500 apiece so that certainly sparked my interest in the sport.
"While at Dapto I met breeder Benny Howe, whose father Ken was a leading trainer at the time, and he persuaded me to buy a puppy.
"While Benny was on a ride-on mower only one pup bothered chasing after him so I chose that one, and racing as Go Shoopa, she became a top notcher, having 101 races and earning nearly $500,000.
"She was originally trained by Ken Howe, then by Queensland's Million Dollar Chase winning trainer Michael Zammit and later with Robbie Britton in Melbourne.
"When she was retired Go Shoopa she produced Gunnadoo Magic, who won 27 races for Benny Howe, but then I took a break from the greyhounds.
"A couple of years ago Glen Goodwin, another well-known South Coast trainer, was unable to drive and got me to chauffeur him around for a few weeks so next thing I knew I was back into the sport.
"After meeting breeder Chris O'Brien at a Dapto meeting he talked me into buying a pup by Hooked On Scotch from his bitch Notified, but then persuaded me to purchase a second, almost identical bitch, pointing out that I would never forgive myself if I picked the wrong one.
"So I got Glorified and Wellness when they were eight weeks old but after they were educated in Victoria we were advised that the two blue brindle bitches had no future on the racetrack.
"When Ruth King trialled Glorified she used to take a few steps before turning around and running back to her while Wellness would usually spin around in the starting boxes and be facing the wrong way when the lids lifted.
"So I decided to place them in the adoption program and they were on the verge of being collected by a woman on the Central Coast.
"But one morning Ruth King gave Glorified and Wellness virtually a last chance gallop on the Thirlmere trial track and contacted me urgently, saying they were going nowhere.
"All of sudden the chase and the racing just clicked into their heads and now they are usually brilliant beginners, just like they were at Wenty on Thursday.''
The wins by Glorified and Wellness at Wentworth Park gave Marsh his first winning double as an owner and now he is contemplating his first group success with the youngsters who were within a couple of weeks of becoming pets.