They may not be the most athletic animals in the barn, but four pigs from Klawock are going to race in a long track around McPherson Barn for the first time in years at the Southeast Alaska State Fair.
Barn manager Greg Podsiki tracked down the four short-haired Kunekune pigs and had them flown up to town last month.
“I called all over the state and Canada. But if I was going to get them out of Canada it would have cost me $2,000,” he said. “These pigs cost me $250. But we got a free flight.”
Then, he consulted with a few professional pig racers, one from Florida and one from Illinois, to figure out how to get them prepared for at least two races a day they’ll perform Thursday through Saturday.
“They’re supposed to be 12 weeks old, they are a year old,” he said.
So, training started as soon as they arrived in the Chilkat Valley. He started with a bell and cookies.
“They love Oreos,” he said.
Podsiki rings the bell, and calls “piggy piggy piggy.” Then he runs the track along with them, though they’re smart enough to have taken off and run the course without him a few times once he rang the bell.
He’s been drilling them to run three or four practice sessions a day.
There will be no formal betting on this year’s races, though Podsiki recently learned that the fair used to sell tickets for the races as as a split-the-pot fundraiser.