Turning back the clock as Yeppoon’s new racing calendar starts.

With Yeppoon’s 2025/26 racing calendar starting today, it’s a good time to take a walk down memory lane to almost a quarter of a century ago.

In 2001 a youngster, Bryce Dieckmann, barely in his teens, had his first ride at Keppel Park and got the result on debut in the Class 1 Handicap riding Heroic Boy for his dad John, the galloper’s trainer.

Heroic Boy was one of 10 Yeppoon winners for the jockey during his relatively short but successful career. Riding trackwork from the age of 13 and undertaking a school-based jockey apprenticeship through Year 10, Dieckmann has an interesting story that’s worth telling today. He rode on over 80 different racetracks in three States and the Territory, having less than 1000 rides for 122 winners and 218 placegetters, putting him in the money about 25% of the time.

I remember Bryce, who rode dozens of winners at Callaghan Park and plenty elsewhere including Flemington, Caulfield, Moonee Valley, Eagle Farm, Doomben and the Gold Coast, when he came to Darwin for the Cup Carnival when I was CEO there, 23 years ago.

The big days of this year’s Darwin Cup Carnival are tomorrow and Monday.

Dieckmann had a ‘first’ in Darwin too. Aged 15, six days off his 16^th birthday, and making his Fannie Bay debut, he captured the first feature of 2002, riding the horse that would go on and win the Darwin Cup that year, Brave Decision for flamboyant South Australian winemaker, Wolf Blass in the Chief Minister’s Cup at Darwin’s opening day.

The apprentice, who was in Darwin with his dad and a team of horses, gave Brave Decision a little bit of rein and let him run. Dieckmann returned to the winners’ stall with a smile that stretched from the Top End to the Tropic of Capricorn as he took in the atmosphere and a huge ovation, despite his mount being an outsider at 20/1. Had he been a few years older, the Bay bookies would have stepped up to shout him a beer at the bar. Dieckmann’s golden run didn’t end in Darwin though. On the way home he stopped off at Longreach and teamed up with Dave Peoples.

“Dad left me there on loan to ride for Dave and I did the Birdsville Carnival, rode second place in the Cup, but had the best day at Bedourie with five rides for four wins,” Dieckmann recalled.

From the heart of the outback, Dieckmann returned to Rocky briefly before being picked up by Sunshine Coast trainer Ray McCall, Natalie McCall’s father. He rode in his first metropolitan races for McCall where he spent three months. But his real break came when he got a call up from Peter Moody. “I spent three years there and got to ride against the best jockeys in the best races on the best horses,” Dieckmann said. In Melbourne, the young jockey won a treble, three winners from four rides on the same program at Caulfield and rode his first Listed race winner in 2003, on Chattanooga for Mick Price.

Wasting to ride eventually took its toll on the talented but tall Dieckmann and he retired after about a decade of competition.

These days Bryce is the manager of Diplock’s Powder Coating at Kawana CQ. His boss is also a racing man, Greg Diplock, a former RJC committeeman and father of Brandon, the RJC deputy chairman, Rocky businessman and founding owner of One Syndications.

RJC CEO, David Aldred.