Emphasis Preaching Journal

The term "dark horse" may have originated with Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield (1804-1881). In his 1831 publication, The Young Duke, he wrote: "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." The "dark horse" has subsequently come to symbolize the unexpected winner.