Haruurara, the chestnut mare famous for having now lost 106 races in a row, must be a secret fan of Samuel Beckett, the acerbic Irish playwright who died in 1989. We are thinking in particular of Beckett's late play "Worstward Ho," a line from which is said to have become the mantra of a thousand struggling stand-up comics: "Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."
Haruurara's feats of ignominy at the racetrack -- the 8-year-old has never placed higher than second and has lifetime winnings of just 1 million yen -- have inspired pop philosophers from the prime minister down to the lowliest bettor to meditate on failure and its meaning, especially for slump-ridden Japan.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi praised the horse in the Diet as an example of fortitude in tough times. Conveniently ignoring the fact that the horse hardly has a choice in the matter, having stayed the course under whip and spur, the prime minister said the lesson of Haruurara's story was that "people shouldn't give up, even when they lose." Many ordinary people seem to have interpreted the saga of this Anna Kournikova of the equine world in the same way. (That's not a far-fetched comparison, by the way: Haruurara has earned millions in the horsy equivalent of endorsements and will soon go the winless tennis diva one better by having a movie made about her life).