Instead it was Merle Clarke's Too Bias ($19) who led home a highly unlikely quinella in the GBOTA Welcome Maiden (307 metres) ahead of Gem Dealer ($81, Paul Rollins).

The quinella paid out a healthy $80, and anyone lucky enough to add the third-placed White Boots ($6, Ray Tyquin) to a trifecta would have netted a cool $1,500 for each dollar.

Both of Clarke's runners, Too Bias and Charming Chilli, got away strongly at the start while Ritza Runner and White Boots joined in to make it a line of four.

Race favourite Maximum Zeal ($2.30, Darren Sultana) prowled close behind and the other well-backed runner in the event Future Link ($2.60, Raymond Smith) started to make a charge along the rail.

White Boots got squeezed out of the contest on the corner and so did Future Link, who collected the unfortunate Rocky Mountain in the chaos.

Maximum Zeal had avoided the trouble and started to make inroads on leader Too Bias but he too succumbed to an unfortunate turn of events when Ritza Runner nudged him slightly off balance.

It gave Too Bias the clean air he needed to go on and win on debut, coming past the line in 18.27 seconds.

Gem Dealer gained a little ground late to finish within a length of the winner.

The run of the race went to White Boots, who powered back into the race after being spat out the back of the pack and still went on to run third a further 1.5 lengths away.