Area there any racetracks(horsetracks) that are actually FIVE miles long? I mean, thats a really long racetrack!
Were racetracks of old that long?
And while were on the subject, why did the singer bet on a bobtailed nag? Has nag come to have a negative connotation over the ages? Was the horse he bet on some sleek young filly at the time?
And “Bound to run all night , bound to run all day”?WTH?
C’mon, it’s just a silly song!
I mean, are there any real stairways to heaven? And there were two songs about that!
not good enough!
Some horse races were considerably longer than five miles, but these were not on racecourses as we know them today.
The steeplechase has its origins in hunting, no big surprise there, and was generally reckoned to have started in the late 18thC.
The reason it is called a steeplechaes was that it was often set between village churches or these were used as landmarks along the way.
Things have changed a great deal, not least that folk just do not want horses galloping around all over the place, some of the routes were very variable on the old steeplechases, and for spectators a circuit provides a better experience.
The longest single flat race circuit I can find mention of is Pontefract racecourse in West Yorkshire England and this course is around two miles long but there may be events where they run around two or more times which are longer still.
The Grand National, held at Aintree, in England is 4.5miles long, and they do two circuits, and it has hurdles and water jumps.
That’s about as close as I can get to five miles, but it does show that it is within the realms of possibility.
Personally, I bet on the bay.
Do-Daing on a public website!
That not right!
Did your Mother teach you to Do-Da in public?
No she did not young man!
In my day, we never Do-Da’ed in public!
We had decency!
We never even Do-Da’ed in the privacy of our own bedrooms!
If we Do-Da’ed at all, and we never did we Do-Da’ed in our bathrooms.
With the door locked & the curtains drawn!
Do-Daing on a public website!
That not right!
postcards almost certainly has it right. It is a song written to be sung by the minstrel shows of the time. It was a typical exaggeration piece. There is nothing but exageration in the song.
Nag probably meant simply horse at the time, although some of the cites I could find in Lighter would indicate that it depended on how the writer/speaker used the word.
Space elevator within 15 years?
Bosda offered
And I suppose that diddy wah diddying is?
According to this chorus, they might go around again:
Here is some more information:
Flora Temple was most certainly NOT the horse.
If you accept what This Site says about Flora, and knowing that Foster wrote the song in 1850, she was just another nag when the song was penned.
I’m confused since your link starts off with the statement:
My link also identified Flora Temple as the 'bob-tailed nag", so that is two votes against your one vote (I’m passing).
kniz You’re right. I should have made it clearer.
Even though the site I linked to referred to her that way, I was more interested in what seemed to be the best historical account of the horse known as Flora Temple.
Highlights from the site: Horse born in 1845. Horse sold for $13 in 1849. In June of 1850, she was a livery horse and didn’t even race before this.
If she didn’t race before late 1850, how could Foster have written a song based on her? Her fame came between 1852 and 1860.