The Stature USA x Karloo Sally gelding was bred and owned by Barry Lew of Karloo Mick fame before being handed over to the hobby trainer.

He won seven races in all, all in Copelin’s care.

Karloo Stature will also be remembered as the horse that provided St John’s schoolboy and rookie reinsman Madison Reynolds with his first career winner two starts back on November 4.

Copelin said yesterday that the loss of his only horse was a terrible blow.

“It’s been a terrible week. Firstly we thought we had the chance to save him then he broke his leg,” the trainer said.

“He had a hard run when third at Dubbo on the Wednesday night and later we noticed a problem with a back leg.

“The vet had a look at him and did some x-rays but they didn’t show any bone fractures.

“However they did reveal that he had torn a suspensory ligament in a back leg.

“Gordon (Bentley) said he wouldn’t even give him a fifty-fifty chance to get back to racing but for the time being the only option was to leave him in the paddock for 12 months or so.

“Even then we had him on pain killers and he was iced up and he didn’t look all that well.

“Then on Sunday I was out at Peter Reynold’s place and Alan Biles rang me from the showground and suggest that I needed to come in as the horse had broken a leg.

“He had obviously gone over sideways on it and he did the cannon bone.”

As one would expect Karloo Stature and Tom Copelin had formed more than a working relationship: “I treated him as a mate,” he said.

Copelin admitted he was disillusioned with harness racing and at the same time was looking after the showground track.

“I think Barry (Lew) sensed what was going on and offered me the horse - I think in hindsight - to keep me interested,” Copelin said.

“In fact the horse won first start for me when Jason Hyde drove him in a race at Dubbo. Prior to that he’d had nine starts without running a place.

“Barry told me to do with him what I wanted to so that was the start of him coming into my care.

“When you work with a horse one on one, you can spend as much time with him as you like. When you drive him in track work and the like you get to know what he’s like and then you can talk to the driver about what is best for him.

“I think we did that pretty well.

“We had a few issues early with his shoes and we sort them out but overall he’s been a good honest horse with a very good temperament and relatively easy to train.

“He’s been very good to me.”

Despite losing Karloo Stature, Tom Copelin won’t be lost to harness racing.

“There’s already something in the pipeline for another horse, so that’ll be good,” he said.