Mr Mick Dittman

Tuesday, 2 November, 1982. It was the day that a little fella from Rockhampton stopped the nation when he pulled off one of the great upsets in Melbourne Cup history.

On 'Gurner's Lane' in a race in which the mighty Kingston Town was very much the people's favourite, he sat back in the field most of the way, and 200m from the finishing post he wasn't even in the call. 

But as Kingston Town went past Noble Comment and looked set to salute the little fella speared his big chestnut geldiong up the inside and grabbed him on the line to win by a half head. 

It wasn't a result that pleased the hundreds of thousands of Australians who backed the favourite, but it was one of the great wins in Melbourne Cup history on a horse that in 1983 was named Australia's champion racehorse. 

It was one of the great days, too, in the life of one of the great Australian jockeys, Leonard Ross 'Mick' Dittman. 

And there have been plenty. Born in Rockhampton in 1952, he first raced on the Gold Coast and landed a double at Murwillumbah as a 16-year-old. 

His first notable win came in the 1968 Gold Coast Newmarket, now known as the Goldmarket, aboard Red Shah. in 1969 he punched home Makata in the Ipswich Cup and he was away. 

Nicked 'The Enforcer' because of his strong and shrewd use of the whip, he dominated Brisbane racing through the 1970's, lifting the bar year after year to claim five jockey's premierships and riding a then record 97 and a half wins in the 1983-84 season. 

On one extraordinary day at Eagle Farm in November 1976 he rode six winners and a second on a seven-event program.  

In the mid-80s he headed south to join forces with the late great Tommy SMith, where he won three Sydney jockey's premierships and confirmed his standing as one of the nation's best hoops. 

Among more than 1,700 winners in 30-year career in the saddle he steered home a phenomenal 88 Group One winners to rank sixth all-time behind the legendary George Moore, Damien Oliver, Roy Higgins, Jim Cassidy and Shane Dye. 

Among his biggest wins were three Golden Slippers on Full on Aces, Bounding Away and Bint Marscay, two Cox Plates in consecutive years on Strawberry Road and Red Anchor, one Caulfield Cup on Sydeston and his unforgettable Melbourne Cup triumph on Gurner's Lane, making him one of just seven jockeys in history to have won the 'big four' of Australian racing.

He later rode for two years in Singapore before returning home to become a racing manager and then a bloodstock consultant. 

Today a race known as the Mick Dittman Plate at Eagle Farm pays tribute to his rich racing legacy, which endures today via son Luke, a successful jockey. 

Now living on the Gold Coast, he was inducted into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame in 2002 two years after it had been formed, and in 2009 was inaugural inductee to the Queensland Sport Hall of Fame.