State fair champion ham brings $400K at auction
LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) - The Grand Champion Country Ham at the 2015 Kentucky State Fair has raised $400,000 at auction.
The ham was auctioned during the 52nd Kentucky Country Ham Breakfast at the Kentucky Exposition Center. The winning bid was placed by Republic Bank & Trust Company and was far less than the $2 million raised last year in a joint bid by Republic Bank, Hermitage Farms and Bridgeman Foods.
The money raised from the auction is expected to go to charity.
The first auction was held in 1964. The winning bid that year was $124.
[OTHER NEWS: Airman from Lexington among 2 killed in Afghanistan]
It was also a morning for breakfast as politicians joined more than 1,600 guests to breakfast. One of the major themes, who was best for Kentucky governor.
Republican candidate Matt Bevin said he knows that Obamacare isn't right for the state but he knows what is.
"I grew up in poverty, I grew up with no insurance, I understand exactly what people are wrestling with," Bevin said. "Jack Conway has no idea, he's all talk and no action. I'm the only one with a plan for how we're going to be able to provide health care to everyone in Kentucky at a price we can actually afford."
"I have an idea how to govern and I have an idea how to build consensus," said Conway, the Democratic candidate. "My opponent has absolutely no idea whatsoever how to build consensus. He doesn't have the relationships in Frankfort, he doesn't know the system well enough he is ill prepared to be Governor of Kentucky."
Independent Drew Curtis said he's what the commonwealth needs because he's not a politician and not tied to an ideology.
"I'm more about results and pragmatism and what actually works. If you can bring me an idea from either party, and I don't care which one it is, and you can prove that this has worked somewhere else preferably somewhere nearby like Tennessee, Ohio or Indiana than that idea is on the table," Curtis said. "Both parties actually have a seat at the table as opposed to one being frozen out for four or eight years."
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