# Camptown racetrack five miles long, doo-daa, doo-daa **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 29, 2002, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camptown-racetrack-five-miles-long-doo-daa-doo-daa/100672 "2002-03-29T01:17:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Weeks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/bbce88/32.png) [@Weeks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weeks)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camptown-racetrack-five-miles-long-doo-daa-doo-daa/100672/1 "2002-03-29T01:17:05Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camptown-racetrack-five-miles-long-doo-daa-doo-daa/100672/2 "2002-03-29T04:32:41Z")
C’mon, it’s just a silly song! I mean, are there any **real** stairways to heaven? And there were **two** songs about that! ---
**Author:** ![Weeks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/bbce88/32.png) [@Weeks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weeks)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camptown-racetrack-five-miles-long-doo-daa-doo-daa/100672/3 "2002-03-29T11:32:50Z")
not good enough! ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camptown-racetrack-five-miles-long-doo-daa-doo-daa/100672/4 "2002-03-29T12:00:37Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camptown-racetrack-five-miles-long-doo-daa-doo-daa/100672/5 "2002-03-29T12:44:37Z")
Personally, I bet on the bay. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camptown-racetrack-five-miles-long-doo-daa-doo-daa/100672/6 "2002-03-29T12:47:47Z")
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!** 😃😉 ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camptown-racetrack-five-miles-long-doo-daa-doo-daa/100672/7 "2002-03-29T14:09:39Z")
**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. > [@](#): > > I mean, are there any real stairways to heaven? [Space elevator within 15 years?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=106131&highlight=elevator) **Bosda** offered > [@](#): > > Do-Daing on a public website! > > That not right! And I suppose that [diddy wah diddying](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=106341&highlight=diddy) is? ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camptown-racetrack-five-miles-long-doo-daa-doo-daa/100672/8 "2002-03-29T15:20:32Z")
According to this chorus, they might go around again: > [@](#): > > \*\*Seen dem flyin’ on a ten mile heat – Doo-dah! doo-dah! > Round de race track, den repeat – Oh! doo-dah day! > I win my money on de bob-tail nag – Doo-dah! doo-dah! > I keep my money in an old tow-bag – Oh! doo-dah day! Here is some more information: > [@](#): > > CAMPTOWN RACES > > June 28,1853 - Flora Temple, “the Bob Tail Nag” > > Between 1853 and 1859 she lowered the record for the mile six different times, her fastest being 2:19 ¾ set in 1859 when she was fourteen years old. > The Camptown racetrack was a site for harness racing. > > Song by Stephen Collins Foster (1826-1864) ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camptown-racetrack-five-miles-long-doo-daa-doo-daa/100672/9 "2002-03-29T15:39:44Z")
**Flora Temple** was most certainly **NOT** the horse. If you accept what [This Site](http://library.morrisville.edu/local_history/flora/life.html) says about Flora, and knowing that Foster wrote the song in 1850, she was just another _nag_ when the song was penned. ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camptown-racetrack-five-miles-long-doo-daa-doo-daa/100672/10 "2002-03-29T15:48:19Z")
I’m confused since your link starts off with the statement: > [@](#): > > Flora Temple, the “bob-tailed nag” of Stephen Foster’s song, Camptown Races, was born in Oneida County, New York, near the village of Waterville, in 1845. My link also identified **Flora Temple** as the 'bob-tailed nag", so that is two votes against your one vote (I’m passing). ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camptown-racetrack-five-miles-long-doo-daa-doo-daa/100672/11 "2002-03-29T16:21:30Z")
**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.