ADS-L Digest - 16 Aug 2003 to 17 Aug 2003 (#2003-229)

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated 8/1/2003 04:54:41 AM Eastern Standard Time, an apparently
insomniac Bapopik at AOL.COM quoted:

> http://quickstart.clari.net/interpages/ad-pu1.html?1
> The Fair Grounds is the original royal seat of winter racing, third oldest
> track in the country, dripping with so much history that real horseplayers
> treat
> it as a place apart. <snip> This is such an ancient location
> that the Bobtail Nag, of "Camptown Races" fame, raced here in 1859. (The
> horse's real name was Flora Temple.)
>

Stephen Collins Foster published his song "Camptown Races" in 1850.

Foster's Plantation Melodies as sung by the Christy & Campbell Minstrels and
New Orleans Serenaders, Written Composed and Arranged by Stephen C. Foster
(Baltimore: F. D. Benteen; New Orleans: W. T. Mayo, 1850).

This makes one wonder about the accuracy of the statement that the "Bobtail
Nag" was a horse named Flora Temple (a mare?) who was still racing in 1859.

         - Jim Landau