Darcy Brereton opens up on his dad’s horror fall, and the moment he chose golf over horse racing

In another world, Darcy Brereton might have just finished the Spring Carnival – but for a harrowing moment that resulted in the near-death of his father Danny and changed their lives forever.

Danny Brereton is treated after a horrific fall – this was the moment son, Darcy, decided golf was his sport.

There are some things kids should never see, and walking into an intensive care unit to see your dad clinging to life is one of them.

Only a few days earlier, a teenage schoolkid was playing a round of golf when he was rushed off the course to meet his mother in the car park. He didn’t know why, but the urgency hinted something was clearly wrong.

He still remembers the date like it was yesterday: August 21, 2010. It was a day after his sister’s birthday.

It was supposed to be like any other, Darcy Brereton would play golf and dad Danny, a longtime Victorian-based jockey who had won group 1 races, would ride in a few events at Moonee Valley in the twilight of his career.

A few hours later, Danny, 46 at the time, was steering a horse which clipped the heels of another during the race. He was speared into the ground and lost consciousness.

Medical and track staff attend to jockey Danny Brereton.

Doctors later told him he died on the track – twice – but both times medics were able to recover his vitals.

“I’ll just never forget two or three days later, they’d performed so many surgeries on him, mum took me to go and see him,” Darcy says.

“He was in this ICU room and he’s just lying in the middle of it. There had to be 100 wires coming out of the roof into him.

“He was the colour purple. That was shocking. Seeing it was awful.”

Danny’s diagnosis was grim: he’d broken both collarbones, most of his ribs, his neck, his back, punctured a lung as well as his aorta, which almost killed him.

“He bled to death twice,” Darcy says.

“They lost him at two stages. That was the point where I realised golf was probably the option, and not go down the path of being a jockey.”

The diagnoses for Danny Brereton was grim at the time.

Like most racing families, it’s hard for the bug not to be passed from one generation to another.

Darcy was already a regular at the stables of trainers Tony Vasil and Colin Little where Danny would often ride, even grooming top sprinter Lucky Secret. His next step was starting to ride more regularly.

But inside that sterile intensive care room, Darcy’s mum Debbie touched Danny’s feet. They were cold. The racing bug for Darcy was never the same.

These days, the Brereton name lives on in professional sport.

Darcy will feature on the same leaderboard as Cameron Smith, Jason Day and Min Woo Lee at the Australian PGA Championship at Royal Queensland this week, the richest event he’s played in. He shot an opening round three-under 68 in horrendous conditions.

Darcy Brereton in action at the NSW Open. Photo: Golf NSW

Watching from afar will be Danny, who lives life as an incomplete paraplegic and one of the most famous jockeys to have cheated death.

He was initially told after his accident he would be lucky to move a toe again. He can now move short distances with walking aids and independently drives a car. He tries to get on course occasionally to watch his son, but it’s not easy.

At 60, he’s still trying to work out the lingo for his son’s chosen profession. Having seen a bunch of eight-under and seven-under scores after the first round of a recent tournament, Danny texted Darcy to discuss the birdie blitz.

“There were a lot of high scores today,” he messaged.

Darcy Brereton has forged his own name in the golf world. Picture: Getty

“No wonder he stuck to racing his whole life because he still doesn’t quite comprehend even the scoring in golf,” Darcy laughs.

“They’re low scores. But he keeps an interest though, and so does mum.

“He’s good to lean on and bounce ideas off. It may continue the professional sporting legacy in the family.

“But I do it because I love it. That’s the main reason I play.”

Darcy’s love for horse racing has never quite dissipated, and he admits to still enjoying going to the races and studying pedigrees, with a particular fascination with that of Black Caviar. But for now, birdies are the priority over breeding.

“If golf didn’t work out and I needed to do something else down the line, it would probably be in that industry,” he says. “In the next year or two I want to be on a major tour. But I’m just stoked to be playing and I love the challenge.

“[Dad’s race fall] gave me this realisation life can change very quick, soak up every moment as much as you can and not take it too seriously.”