Coming into the tournament, France was unbeaten in 21 games and picked by some as a potential dark-horse contender.

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Even so, the sultan remains the leading dark-horse candidate, and his name is mentioned alongside top oppositionist Megawati Sukarnoputri and Muslim preacher Abdurrahman Wahid.

CNN: A PRESIDENTIAL DARK HORSE

Coming in first place, by the way, in the bedandbreakfast.com pancake competition is a long-shot, dark-horse entry: a lemon-blueberry ricotta-cheese pancake with a sweet lemon sauce, garnished with fresh strawberries.

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But the underperformance of so many of the world's soccer powers--pre-tournament co-favorites Argentina and Italy, defending champion France and dark-horse favorite Portugal were all eliminated in the first round--diminished the tournament as a showcase of the world's top footballing talent.

FORBES: Magazine Article

The 43-year-old was also viewed as a dark horse to succeed Steve McClaren as England national coach before the appointment of Fabio Capello.

BBC: Klinsmann handed reins at Bayern

Many have tipped Croatian 10th seed Marin Cilic as a dark horse for the title and he enjoyed a straight-sets win against Spain's Daniel Gimeno-Traver.

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The third candidate, Michael Badnarik, a computer-programmer from Texas, entered the convention as a dark horse: unlike the other two hopefuls, he had not even rented a room for his campaign headquarters.

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When it comes to video game-based comics and art books, one publisher stands out above and beyond: Dark Horse.

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Their interest in some of the lesser-known candidates was piqued, but there was no dramatic twist that sent a dark horse sprinting out of the pack.

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