IT is 95 years since the Wagin Trotting Club was established and along with the Wagin Football Club, it has for decades shared its facilities with the Make Smoking History Wagin Woolorama.
This year the Woolorama committee has strengthened its ties with the trotting club by sponsoring one of its official race meetings.
Club president Kevin Spurr said the additional sponsorship was a welcome gesture that added to good local support that has ensured the club was in a strong position.
"We are really successful as a club and in a strong financial position with exciting and entertaining meetings but like many country organisations we struggle for volunteers," Mr Spurr said.
"We have sponsors like the Palace Hotel that donates a $1000 jackpot on the last four races, there are giveaway prizes for losing betting ticket and our food and venue are tops."
The club is planning to build more stalls and has recently repainted the existing stalls and hopes soon to build a new commentary and judge's box.
It also is working towards installing a sprint lane on the track, with Mr Spurr saying Wagin's long straight made it well-suited for this relatively new industry addition to harness racing.
The club works closely with Woolorama to develop the ground and hopes to gain a RWWA grant to achieve its latest plans.
From an industry level he said the outlook was a little less promising with many country trotting tracks closed down and others hosting fewer meetings as trotting is centralised in metropolitan and major regional centres.
There was a time when towns such as Wyalkatchem, Dumbleyung and Katanning had trotting tracks but it is also a sign of the times, Mr Spurr said.
The sport had its origins in America when families went to church in a horse and cart then boldly proclaimed they had the fastest trotting horse and, inevitably, it turned competitive.
In Australia's earlier days when horses were widely used on farms many farmers viewed trotting as a way of making some extra income.
Wagin hosts eight official race meetings a year, mostly on Friday nights.
