Chuckwagon races at this year's Manitoba Stampede in Morris

Great weather and large crowds helped make the 48th annual Manitoba Stampede and Exhibition in Morris a big hit.

Tim Lewis, president of the Stampede said the crowds were down slightly overall from last year. "We had a little bit of rain Saturday night, but the races went on without a hitch," Lewis said. The annual event usually draws 20,000 to 25,000 people. "We haven't crunched all the numbers yet, but I think we'll be under 20,000 for this year, mainly because it was raining in Winnipeg on Saturday and people expected it was raining out here as well, so some people stayed away."

Major reconstruction along Main Street in Morris created some challenges for organizers of the parade. "Normally our parade goes right down Main Street and we had to move it over one block to the west this year, but it actually went off very well and I didn't hear one complaint about construction," Lewis said.

Planning will begin for the 2012 Stampede later this year, but the big event in the future is the 50th anniversary of the Stampede and Exhibition, which will take place in 2013. According to Lewis, work is already underway to mark that special milestone.

"We have had a committee working already for over a year on trying to decide what we're going to for the 50th, what's going to be special, what's going to be new, what can we really expect to do on the 50th, and that committee meets periodically.  we have been doing some fundraising with that committee already just for have a separate pot of money so we can do the special things with the 50th."