backing the wrong horse

Verb

back the wrong horse (third-person singular simple present backs the wrong horse, present participle backing the wrong horse, simple past and past participle backed the wrong horse)

1. (idiomatic) To support something or someone that later turns out to be unsuccessful.
   • This might mean that I waste vast amounts of time searching for a species only to find that it no longer counted when the new regime is in place. All that effort spent backing the wrong horse.2005, Sean Dooley, The Big Twitch, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, page 32

   Synonyms:

   pick the wrong horse, choose the wrong horse

   Antonyms:

   back the right horse