The club was named as the winner at Harness Racing NSW's annual awards night held last Saturday at the Star City Casino in Sydney, which was hosted by On the Pace presenters Greg Radley and Greg Hayes.

President Gary Punch and wife Joanne, who is also the club secretary, made the trip and were surprised and thrilled Leeton beat out the other nominees Eugowra, Junee, Orange and Temora.

"The club was very proud to win this award as it was not expected," Joanne Punch said.

"The amount of people that attended our meeting and with it being over Christmas, there was a great atmosphere around.

"A lot of people come home for Christmas and make the Lin Gordon Paceway a place to meet up with old friends.

"The grounds, with a large lawn area, are a great place to take the kids out as we had all free things for them."

While the Leeton club hasn't won this award before, its members have been honoured at the prestigious presentation night in the past.

"This is the first time that we have won this," Punch said. "But we have been very lucky in the past with the volunteer of the year awards.

"Past winners have been Kevin Sullivan, Norm Johnson and Lorna Hunt.

"Bill trembath was this year nominated for the best participant at Carnival of Cups meetings. This was done on a point score and he was four points from the winner, which was great.

"Harness Racing NSW did the nominations. Any feedback from competition entries on the night might have helped in our entry as there was not many officials present on the night due to Christmas commitments.

"Photos were taken of the night and this is one of the biggest trotting meetings in country NSW."