Trainer Clinton McDonald still has moments when he finds it difficult to breathe.
He likens the symptoms after a busy morning around his Cranbourne stables to dealing with early onset emphysema.
Clinton McDonald, second from right in blue jacket, joins owners after Streisand’s Caulfield win earlier this month.Credit: Getty Images
The tiredness, he says, is the lingering aftermath of a heavy fall during last year’s Melbourne Cup carnival. He slipped down three steps, broke four ribs and punctured a lung, spending five days in ICU.
McDonald says he feared he was going to die, surrounded by doctors and nurses in a hospital room as his heart faltered under the strain. He says he contemplated the end when the concerned medics pulled out a defibrillator.
But four months on, McDonald is far from feeling sorry for himself. Quite the opposite. His says the accident has re-affirmed his long-held belief that you have to live for the moment.
That next big moment arrives at 4pm on Saturday when his two-year-old filly Streisand starts fifth favourite in the $2 million Blue Diamond Stakes at Caulfield.
If Streisand can capture the 1200-metre race, handing McDonald his second Blue Diamond in three years, following Hayasugi’s victory in 2024, the trainer says he will appreciate the moment. He just won’t celebrate with a cigarette.
“I haven’t smoked since the accident,” he says.
“It’s crazy to think that something so simple could have caused so much damage. I was in hospital for a long time and had a lot of issues, and complications, really, that they had to sort of get on top of.
“People don’t realise how bad it was from something so small. I slipped down… stairs just at my front office.
Two-year-old filly Streisand wins the Blue Diamond prelude at Caulfield on Saturday, February 7.Credit: Getty Images
“I was just going in to get some papers for a steward, and both of my feet just went from underneath me and I went up in the air, and I just came crashing down on my side.”
McDonald says he suffered compound fractures to four ribs, two of which were broken in two places. One of those broken bones pierced his lung.
“I was in ICU for five days, five or six days, and then about four days later, I discharged myself, thinking I was OK,” he says.
“I went home, and my lungs started filling up with blood and fluid, so I had to go back, and then they had to operate, get all the stuff out because I couldn’t breathe. And then I ended up with a staph infection.
“The first week I was there, I thought I was going to die. I had a heart issue. It was just really weird.”
While McDonald, 50, was laid up and fighting to recover, his 30-year-old daughter and assistant trainer Ali Kennedy-McDonald was looking after the stables.
She had a frustrating start, running second with Tales Of Time in the Maribyrnong Plate on Melbourne Cup day, and a second four days later with Streisand in the Inglis Banner on Champions Day.
“I was dying to get a winner, and they kept running short-half head seconds,” McDonald says.
Streisand, so named because she is out of a mare called Zouper Star, bounced back from her narrow spring defeat to become a force during this Melbourne autumn carnival.
She finished fifth in the Blue Diamond preview over 1000m on January 24, running the fastest last 200m for the meeting, before winning the Blue Diamond prelude for fillies over 1100m on February 7.
“Obviously, it was planned for this to be her grand final,” McDonald says. “It’s been a faultless preparation.”
The trainer says the Magnus filly, to be ridden by Ben Melham, is “very similar” to his 2024 Diamond winner.
“Hayasugi never won by a big margin. She was very workmanlike, very professional. This filly is exactly the same,” he says. “And we’ve added blinkers on Saturday, just to give us that extra spark.
“We are confident going in, we think she’s a top three finisher, for sure, on what she has shown us.”
While his stable has enjoyed a good run, heading to Caulfield on Saturday with two leading chances – Rosberg and Streisand – McDonald, too, says he feels “back to normal”.
“It took me a while,” he says. “I still run out of breath a bit. I don’t think my lung has fully recovered, but I’d say it’s probably 85 per cent – something like that.
“I just get tired really quick because my lung was only sort of half working on my left side.”
McDonald says the accident taught him that “tomorrow is never promised”.
“I just think you’ve got to appreciate things more – when you get a win or get a nice horse, or whatever, just enjoy it because you never know what’s around the corner,” he said.
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