Ungreased lightning

An anxious crowd of all ages gathered under a tent behind the Coliseum at the Missouri State Fairgrounds on Sunday afternoon to watch Hedrick’s Racing Pigs compete for a tasty trophy.

Twelve pigs of all shapes and sizes competed in three racing heats, lasting about 30 seconds each. Each pig, with names like Brittany Squeals, Arnold Snoutzenhogger, Forrest Grunt and Snoop Hoggy Hog, made their way around a track, crossing the “ham stretch,” to reach the silver trophy platter, bearing one Oreo cookie.

Each pig, draped in red, blue, yellow and white cloaks, had specific cheering sections during the race. Cheerleaders were chosen from the crowd to step into the middle of the track and shake color-coordinated pom-poms to encourage the crowd to cheer and the pigs to run their fastest.

Professor Timothy D. Swineheart, otherwise known as Timothy Hart, of Nickerson, Kan., acted as moderator of the event. He has been an employee of the Hedrick’s Exotic Animal Farm in Nickerson for 14 years.

“I saw an ad in the paper looking for people who liked animals and loved to travel,” Hart said. “I was right out of high school, and I’ve been doing this ever since.”

Hart has been working the pig race for 10 years and has attended the Missouri State Fair for six years. He said the animal farm, which also provides animals for the petting zoo at the fair, has operations that run from coast to coast. Some of the farm’s animals have traveled all the way to Hawaii.

Melinda Griffith, of Pleasant Hill, and her grandchildren took time out of their day at the fair to watch the competition.

“When we lived in Kansas, we would always go the fair there and watch the pig races, but that’s been 15 years ago,” Griffith said.

Her grandsons, Kameron, 11, and Zach Gray, 9, were both first-timers at the races.

Zach was a supporter of the event’s underdog, Forrest Grunt. Grunt is a black potbelly pig that struggled to keep up with his much younger, and smaller, counterparts.

“I really liked Forrest Grunt,” Zach said. “I was hoping he would win.”

“If you look really closely, you can probably see the track Forrest made in the wood chips with his belly,” Hart exclaimed over the loudspeaker.

Kameron, who Griffith referred to as her “city boy,” wasn’t fond of the fair at first.

“We could barely get him through the livestock barns, but he really seemed to like this,” Griffith said.

“These are fun,” Kameron said. “We should come back again for these.”

Hedrick’s Racing Pigs can be seen daily at 10 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 3:30p.m., 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. through the end of the fair.