Dark horse

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Previously less known thing becoming prominent

title: "Dark horse" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1830s-neologisms", "benjamin-disraeli", "english-language-idioms", "upsets", "political-terminology-of-the-united-states", "political-metaphors-referring-to-people", "metaphors-referring-to-horses"] description: "Previously less known thing becoming prominent" topic_path: "geography/israel" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_horse" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Previously less known thing becoming prominent ::

A dark horse is a previously lesser-known person, team or thing that emerges to prominence in a situation, especially in a competition involving multiple rivals, that is unlikely to succeed but has a fighting chance, unlike the underdog who is expected to lose.

The term comes from horse racing and horse betting jargon for any new but promising horse. It has since found usage mostly in other sports, sports betting, and sports journalism and to lesser extent in nascent business environments, such as experimental technology and startup companies.

Origin

The term began as horse racing parlance for a race horse that is unknown to gamblers and thus difficult to establish betting odds for.

The first known mention of the concept is in Benjamin Disraeli's novel The Young Duke (1831). Disraeli's protagonist, the Duke of St. James, attends a horse race with a surprise finish: "A dark horse which had never been thought of, and which the careless St. James had never even observed in the list, rushed past the grandstand in sweeping triumph."

Usage

Politics

The concept has been used in political contexts in countries such as Iran, the Philippines, Russia, Egypt, Finland, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Politically, the concept came to the United States in the nineteenth century when it was first applied to James K. Polk, a relatively unknown Tennessee politician who won the Democratic Party's 1844 presidential nomination over a host of better-known candidates. Polk won the nomination on the ninth ballot at the 1844 Democratic National Convention, and went on to become the country's eleventh president in the 1844 United States presidential election.

Other successful dark horse candidates for the United States presidency include:

Perhaps the two most famous unsuccessful dark horse presidential candidates in American history are Democrat William Jennings Bryan, a three-term congressman from Nebraska nominated on the fifth ballot after impressing the 1896 Democratic National Convention with his famous Cross of Gold speech (Bryan would go on to receive the Democratic presidential nomination twice more and serve as United States Secretary of State under Woodrow Wilson), and Republican lawyer and businessman Wendell Willkie, who was unexpectedly nominated on the sixth ballot at the 1940 Republican National Convention despite never having previously held government office and having only joined the Republican Party a year prior in 1939 after being a lifelong Democrat.

In Peru, "dark horse" candidates who won include Alberto Fujimori, who defeated Mario Vargas Llosa in the 1990 election, and Pedro Castillo, a previously unknown elementary school teacher, who won the 2021 election. In the United Kingdom, Jeremy Corbyn was considered a "dark horse" candidate when he ran for the 2015 Labour Party leadership election; despite struggling to secure enough nominations from the Parliamentary Labour Party to stand as a candidate, he won the leadership in a landslide. In Venezuela, then-President of the National Assembly Juan Guaidó was described as "the accidental leader" of the Venezuelan opposition; he declared himself acting president in 2019, during the Venezuelan presidential crisis. In Turkey, Ekrem İmamoğlu was little-known before his victory in the 2019 Istanbul mayoral election. In Iran, Masoud Pezeshkian, a little-known "dark horse" candidate, was allowed to run by the Guardian Council and won a surprising victory in the second round of the 2024 Iranian presidential election.

Sport

The term has been used in sport to describe teams and athletes who unexpectedly outperformed their expectations in a competition. Examples include the Los Angeles Kings during the 2012 Stanley Cup playoffs (who placed 1st despite being an 8th-seed entry into the playoffs); Bulgaria at the 1994 FIFA World Cup; Croatia at the 1998 FIFA World Cup and 2018 FIFA World Cup (who placed 2nd despite being ranked 20th in the FIFA World Rankings), Morocco at the 2022 FIFA World Cup (who placed 4th despite being ranked 23rd in the FIFA World Rankings); and Turkey at the 2002 FIFA World Cup (who placed 3rd despite being ranked 31st in the FIFA World Rankings).

Media

The term has been also used in films, television series and video games for award seasons to describe then-unknowingly artists, filmmakers and game developers who beating out fellow competitors that heavily favored to win, most notably the Academy Awards and D.I.C.E. Awards. For example:

References

References

  1. (11 December 2023). "A dark horse". The Phrase Finder.
  2. "Dark horse". [[Merriam-Webster]].
  3. "Origins of Sayings - A Dark Horse". The Idioms.
  4. (6 January 2013). "Who Will Be Iran's Next President?". Radio Free Liberty.
  5. (17 November 2011). "Invest in Philippines, the 'Dark Horse' of Asia". CNBC.
  6. Tikhomirov, Vladimir. (22 May 2012). "Putin names a technocrat Cabinet". Equity.
  7. (1999). "From Grand Duchy to a Modern State: A Political History of Finland Since 1809". C. Hurst & Co (Publishers) Ltd..
  8. "About".
  9. Gauja, Anika. (2017). "Party Reform: The Causes, Challenges, and Consequences of Organizational Change". Oxford University Press.
  10. (16 June 2021). "Peru election: Socialist Pedro Castillo claims victory ahead of official result". The Guardian.
  11. (15 July 2015). "Andrew Whitaker: Don't rule out Labour dark horse".
  12. . (13 September 2015). ["Celebrations as Jeremy Corbyn elected Labour leader with landslide win"](https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/60071).
  13. (2019-01-22). "How Juan Guaidó Rose From Being Virtually Unknown to Lead Venezuela's Opposition (Published 2019)". The New York Times.
  14. "The accidental leader: How Juan Guaidó became the face of Venezuela's uprising". Washington Post.
  15. Wemaëre, Alcyone. (4 April 2019). "Ekrem Imamoglu: From opposition underdog to Istanbul mayor". France24.
  16. "Iran presidential election: Who are the frontrunners?".
  17. Staff, S. I.. (29 June 2018). "Croatia has a real shot at winning the World Cup".
  18. Holiga, Aleksandar. "Is Croatia Emerging as a World Cup Dark Horse?".
  19. "How Turkey became the dark horse of the 2002 World Cup | BULB".
  20. (2000-03-23). "Oscar's Many Twist Endings".
  21. Khan, Fawzia. (2023-05-02). "10 Oscar Dark Horses That Actually Won".
  22. (April 22, 2021). "2020 DICE Awards: 'Untitled Goose Game' Takes Top Honor". The Hollywood Reporter, LLC..
  23. Wolf, Ian. (January 30, 2017). "Yuri!!! On Ice wins Crunchyroll’s "Anime of the Year" Award – Angering Crunchyroll users".

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1830s-neologismsbenjamin-disraelienglish-language-idiomsupsetspolitical-terminology-of-the-united-statespolitical-metaphors-referring-to-peoplemetaphors-referring-to-horses