Beaten, alas no winner, ultimately? (4-3)

I believe the answer is:

also-ran

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'beaten alas no winner ultimately?' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.

'beaten alas no winner ultimately?' is the wordplay.
'beaten' indicates an anagram (letters beaten up or destroyed).
'ultimately?' says to take the final letters (I've seen 'ultimately' mean this).
The last letter of 'winner' is 'r'.
'alas'+'no'+'r'='alasnor'
'alasnor' anagrammed gives 'ALSO-RAN'.

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(Other definitions for also-ran that I've seen before include "Unplaced racehorse" , "This horse doesn't win" , "Unplaced runner" , "Non-winning horse" , "Non-winning racer" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.

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