The Prince Albert Dirt Riders fourth annual Blair Morgan Invitational this weekend at the club’s track by Muskoday was a huge success.
The event wrapped up the second NE Triple Crown Series. Prince Albert Dirt Riders President Matt Fowler said they had a great turnout of both riders and fans for the Saturday portion.
“We’ve had lots of new families, young kids that are starting to get into sport. They are excelling and enjoying the program on the small scale,” Fowler said.
“That’s exactly what we want, we want this to be a family type setting. You might not come here if you’re the professional number one rider in Canada, but we did have one of the kids in our club who is fifth in Western Canada who is here today.”
The Blair Morgan Invitational is the final event of the Triple Crown which features races in Melfort and Nipawin. After running last year on a different weekend the races returned to their traditional weekend for 2026.
“This year we’re back to our traditional August long weekend,” Fowler said. “In the past we tried to adjust around the other series in the province … and we’ve decided that we’re getting big enough that we can just run it when we want to. The people that are chasing the big championships can go to that one and we can continue and just be happy go lucky.”
The series events are held at the Ridge Riderz in Nipawin, the Melfort Exhibition races and the Blair Morgan Invitational.
Fowler said they have a great volunteer base to get the track competition ready every year.
“At this very moment we have how many people out watering the track at halftime to try and keep the dust down for the fans and for the riders,” Fowler said on Saturday between the races.
“It’s been getting better every year and we appreciate every minute of it.”
The Dirt Riders track located near Muskoday was constructed in the 1970s and went into disuse before the club revived again in the 2000s. Fowler and the current group rebuilt the track and the club in 2017. The track is accessed by a road off the grid road.
“It’s been great,” Fowler said. “We can revive it and we’ve had people coming from Nipawin, and Carrot River, Meadow Lake saying this is the closest, easiest to get to riding facility and they all appreciate it. We’ve got members from all over lately.”
Fowler said that it is important to recognize Blair Morgan who the race is named after. Fowler described Morgan as “a hero to everybody around Prince Albert” who has ridden a motorcycle, dirt bike, or snowmobile.
“He’s a living legend,” Fowler said. “It’s cool to have him out and have him honour the kids by giving them their trophies on Sunday night after the racing. He gives each kid their trophy and shakes their hand and that’s a big deal to a lot of people.”
Morgan was also around the races on Saturday to watch and said it was cool to have a race named in his honour. Morgan was inducted into the Prince Albert Sports Hall of Fame in 2009, is a multiple time X-Games medallist. Morgan suffered an accident in 2008 and has now returned to the sport in adaptive racing.
“It’s really cool,” Morgan said. “Obviously, I raced many years ago and the track, it’s been really popular. I think we have like two races here a year now and yeah, I feel pretty honoured for sure to be named after me.”
The other race run at the track is the Midwest Amateur MX Series Round Three and Four in June.
Morgan said he was especially honoured to give back to a new generation of riders. His son, Corbyn, now races at the track, along with several of his friends and neighbours.
Morgan said it’s “pretty cool” to see them all out here. He said the camaraderie among the racing community is an important part of the circuit.
“It is a big family,” he said. “It’s a close-knit community, that’s for sure, and it’s not just this weekend. Basically almost every other weekend they’re hanging out together and camping.
“I think this is like the fourth year now we’re doing this, and it’s been great,” he added. “It’s fun. Nice weather, tracks in good shape, and. It’s quite the success. Lots of people here, spectators and stuff, so it’s kind of cool.”
Fowler said that the current size and situation for the Blair Morgan Invitational is great.
“We could get bigger, but I don’t really need it to be any bigger because this is a fun program.
I don’t need it to be a big money thing where people can’t just show up with their family and enjoy themselves for the weekend,” Fowler said.
Fowler said that there were racers between the ages of 4-years-old and 62-years-old taking part.
michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca
