And he's eager to know if the club can hold onto the track as part of the plans for the Thunder Point Coastal precinct.

The Standard has previously reported the trotting track is on Crown land and the responsibility of the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning.

"I believe DELWP want to return it to the natural bush land," he said.

"But even if we could maintain it and just have use of the track, we'd be prepared to tidy the place up and keep it well.

"We haven't known the future - exactly what's gonna happen - but that's what I'd like to happen."

Senior said the club would like to work in conjunction with DELWP.

"(I want) for them to tell us what we can have or what we can't have, we don't need the whole area like that it has been over the years," he said.

"But if we could just maintain the track and the surrounds here, we would keep the whole place well and maintain it and look after it because we've had trouble with vandals getting in and buggerising the clubhouse, but we don't need the clubhouse anymore at the moment."

The clubhouse is looking run-down with smashed windows.

But more pressing for the club is the long scrub in the middle of the half-mile track (800 metres) which makes it difficult for trainers to see the far side.

Despite the raceway having seen better days, Senior said it was a "great spot to work horses".

The 83-year-old has been in the harness racing game since the 1960s and has trained about 50 winners during his 15 years at Warrnambool.

"If we could just get use of the track, we'd have a membership drive," he said.

"And I'm sure we have a lot of members waiting to see what happens."

Senior said the club had just formed a new committee.

It has been hard for the group to draw numbers over the past decade.

"When the harness racing board took the meetings away from Warrnambool - they used to have seven meetings a year - we had to race at Terang," he said.

"But the thing is, we lost all the local involvement in the club and membership fell away and we stopped running trials.

"We just haven't had the members. But three months ago, we formed a new committee and I've got about 20 people interested in getting involved if there's any future."

Senior said there were about half-a-dozen people on the committee right now.

"The (Harness Racing Victoria) board was going to give us one meeting a year, but the thing is because we didn't have a lease of the property they couldn't give us a meeting," he said.

The vice-president is keen to get clarity on how the club may be able to go forward.

He said he hadn't been involved in past discussions with DELWP.

"Even if they've got a long-term future plan, if they said to us all right for X number of years as long as you maintain it and look after it - we're prepared to get a dozer in and clean all the scrub out of the middle and do whatever needs doing," he said.

Senior said about 10 people were working horses at the track which was a former tip site.

The Koroit resident tends to bring his horses to the Warrnambool track once or twice a week.

He feels it could be of more value to the harness racing community.

"If we cleaned it up, we could run qualifying trials here once a month or every couple of months - it would help the people in the district because at the moment, you've only got Terang or Hamilton," he said.

"With trotting, you've got to qualify your horses and we need qualifying trials."

Senior said the club was given notice about seven years ago.

He explained while the club didn't have a lease, trainers had been using the track and paying rates.

"Even if they said look, we can't give you a lease, but we can give you use of the track on the condition that you do this, this and this," he said.

Meanwhile, Senior has continued training horses and is having luck with Icicle.

It's a special horse for Senior and his wife Lauris.

"Over the 50 or 60 years I've been in trotting my wife's only been in partnership with me in two horses - this is the third one," he said.

The first two horses were successful and Icicle is likewise showing promise with 11 wins from 88 starts.

"Icicle is probably the nicest horse I've ever had," he said.

"I've had better horses but he's just an honest little horse and I think he can go a bit further yet too."

Driver Jackie Barker drove the seven-year-old trotter to victory in a 2180m race at Terang a fortnight ago.

"He was probably 30 yards off the lead at the rear of the field and but then she (Jackie) took off on him and he just kept coming and coming and coming," he said.

"It was one of his best wins."

Icicle also placed second at Geelong a week ago.

It's just the latest adventure in what has been a fruitful career for Senior.

"I've had approximately 150 winners I've driven but I've trained over a couple of hundred," he said.

He got his trotters licence in about 1960 and eventually served about seven years on the HRV board in the 1980s.

Senior has been in the south-west about 15 years and had previously lived in the Yarra Valley.

"Originally I bought a business in Warrnambool 30 years ago but then my son came down here and worked in that - they're Darrian office supplies in Fairy Street," he said.

"That's my son and son-in-law and they've been here 30 years."

Terang Harness Racing Club has its next meet on Monday, November 1. That's followed by a meet on November 9.

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