This year's bunch of 3-year-olds is just not very good right now, which is not to say that 1, 2 or 10 of them will not blossom into formidable runners or be transformed into money-earning stallions over the next couple of months.
Once Allen had lost black‑ball position from his sixth red, a £157,000 payout for a maximum was no longer possible, but his second 146 – he also made one in the 2007 UK Championship – remains a formidable front runner for the £10,000 highest break prize.
Beyond bloodlines and Dollase's good fortune, Ten Most Wanted was assisted mightily by a wicked speed duel by two formidable front-runners, the Haskell Invitational winner Peace Rules and the Jim Dandy victor Strong Hope.
Jeb Bush, the son and brother of presidents who once seemed a formidable front-runner for his party's nomination, quit the race Saturday night after a disappointing finish in South Carolina's primary.
And there are those expectations, which afford a Democratic challenger, however viable, the opportunity to show up Clinton by performing even halfway decently in an early contest; 16.5% of the Iowa vote was enough to launch Gary Hart into a serious contest against former Vice President Walter Mondale, who started 1984 as a formidable front-runner.
Yet after a somewhat lackluster start — it is hard now to appreciate how formidable a front-runner Mrs. Clinton appeared to be just a year ago — Mr. Obama and his team delivered.
A member of both the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame, he was an outstanding pass-catcher, a powerful runner and a formidable blocker, helping to take the Philadelphia Eagles to two consecutive National Football League championships in the 1940s.
His agonized decision-making captivated political activists for weeks, generating a fever of speculation about whether Vice President Joe Biden would enter the race for the Democratic presidential nomination — a move that could have created a formidable obstacle to the front-runner, Hillary Rodham Clinton.
The Olympics provide a topical setting where these issues can't be ducked, as we will see in the South African runner Caster Semenya's formidable presence in the 800m heats on Wednesday.
Though overtaking Mitt Romney, the Republican front-runner, is still a formidable challenge, Mr. Santorum, a former senator from Pennsylvania, has become as much of a political rock star as he has ever been in his life.
