GREENFIELD — “Soooo-iieeee!” came the call, then four metal gates popped open and they were off.
The pigs of Swifty Swine Production’s racing pig team are aptly named, and the crowd gathered at the Franklin County Fair Sunday enthusiastically cheered as the four piglets tore around the small, saw-bed covered track, each vying to snag an Oreo cookie off the silver platter at the end.
The bigger the pigs got as the heats went on, the slower they got, but they still battled ferociously for that chocolatey treat.
The main race, which featured the largest of the pigs, paid homage to another intense race going on this year: the one for the White House.
Each contestant carried a pig-themed twist on one of the high profile candidates fighting for the presidency, including rivals “Hillary Rod-Ham Clinton” and “Donald Trump-roast.”
Not surprisingly, the pig named “Bernie Sanders” — after the candidate who soundly swept Franklin County during the primary elections this spring — received the loudest response from the crowd as he emerged from the trailer and took his mark next to one of his opponents, “Barack-of-ribs Obama.”
And what better way to do that then to tour fairs like Franklin County’s across the country?
For Diederick Joubert and Zane Harper of South Africa, Swifty Swine gave them that chance. The pair are one of four traveling teams around the country to run the shows on behalf of the company.
“We wanted to see the states and to travel, and we just got hooked on pig racing,” said Joubert of taking the gig. “One of our friends worked for our boss before, and he said come join and it just looked like fun, so we been doing it since then.”
Joubert and Harper travel from fair to fair all summer putting on pig races. Their unit will set up shop at the Big E next then on to South Carolina, while the other three are currently in Baltimore and Texas, he said.
Joubert said it takes about a week to train a new racing pig to seek out that Oreo treat. “You’ve got to get them when they’re really small, because if they’re bigger they won’t necessarily run for you.”
He said the pigs are given an Oreo in the starting gate, then guided around the track from behind until they find the other one.
“Then, it’s just up to the fastest one to take it!” he said.
During the off season, between November and February, Joubert and Harper work on a ranch in Texas, they said.
You can reach Tom Relihan
at: 413-772-0261, ext 264
or: trelihan@recorder.com