Examples of also-ran

• Nine-tenths of the Stock Exchange game is not letting your left brain-lobe know what race your right is in until the winning numbers and the also-rans are on the board. 

• In elections, he was an also-ran in all but oratorical verve.

• There is no question of our being an also-ran about promptness of payment, which is a not unimportant item in the total story.

• For politicians, children's issues are also-ran issues, as we can see again here, too.

• If that had not happened, today we might be a winner on the high street, not an also-ran.

• An advisory body is a very poor also-ran.

• If it is put last on the list, a sort of "also-ran," then no doubt you will not get it through.

• Transport will be an important also-ran.