‘Welcome to England’: Dorman Enjoys First Taste of Tattersalls

[Wandering Eyes]

Matt Dorman went from zero to 60 when starting his broodmare band with the purchase of 20 mares in 2020, but five years later, the native Marylander is happy to take a long-term approach to building his Determined Stud breeding operation. Dorman made his first in-person trip to the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale last week and came home with eight yearlings–all fillies who, hopefully, will race for the operation before joining the broodmare band.

“We really wanted to get some of the sire power that exists in Europe,” Dorman said. “Nothing against the Not This Times, the Curlins, the Gun Runners and Into Mischiefs here. But when I look back over decades, some of the big shifts have occurred when either Europeans came here and bought some horses or the Japanese did, or we went over to Europe and brought some back. And so to me, I think just being able to have some of the mix of those bloodlines makes a lot of sense.”

Among Dorman's purchases at Tattersalls was a daughter of Frankel (GB) out of graded winner Hostess (GB) (Iffraaj {GB}) (lot 188) acquired for 600,000gns; a filly by No Nay Never out of group-placed Bufera (Ire) (King's Best) (lot 69) acquired for 540,000gns; and a filly by Sea the Stars (Ire) out of Ginger Nut (Ire) (Sir Prancealot {Ire}) (lot 161) purchased for 450,000gns.

Lot 188 | Tattersalls

“I think turf racing is increasing in America,” Dorman, noting the grassy nature of the pedigrees he is bringing back to his Kentucky base. “The purses are good and it just makes sense. So if some of these can run on dirt, great. If not, we're totally fine. And if we end up breeding horses that are better suited to turf, Europeans come over to Keeneland and Fasig-Tipton all the time. So we're fine with that.”

While it was Dorman's first time attending, Determined Stud–with the help of bloodstock agent David Ingordo–has been shopping the Newmarket auction for three years now.

“Three years ago we tried to get some yearlings at Tattersalls, but we just got priced out by some pretty big players,” Dorman said. “And then last year, we actually got three that are now training in Kentucky and doing well. There are the minor setbacks that you are always going to have, but they all show a little bit of promise. We're not rushing them. One of them might be a late 2-year-old, but most of them are 3-year-old types.”

Making his first trip to Tattersalls, Dorman said he was welcomed by friendly people, first-class infastructure, and some very typical English weather.

“The people were very nice, very kind,” he said. “I don't think we found one grumpy person. Even the first day when it was raining sideways, there were 30-mile-an-hour winds and it was cold. I was like, 'Okay, welcome to England.' And people were apologetic. We were like, 'It's fine.' We just had three or four layers on.”

Dorman was also impressed by the ease of use he found at the facilities at Tattersalls.

“The grounds were just very nice, very well laid out and geared towards being able to look at horses easily,” he said.

And on sales day, “They've got a screen up, so you can see everything in every currency and you don't have to guess. They make it very easy to purchase. The walking ring behind is really nice because you can really get a good look at the horses in a natural movement, as opposed to kind of going up and back and up and back. So that was kind of cool.”

Dorman concluded, “I think we could learn from what the folks do at Tattersalls along the customer service lines. Obviously not everyone's spending a million dollars or three or four or five or whatever, but even when folks are buying two horses, that's a big deal for them. Not everyone's going to be a high roller and get the penthouse in Vegas, but there should be that same kind of experience for everyone. I think folks over here [in the U.S.] are starting to make an effort to get there.”

Dorman began his breeding operation with a methodical business plan, a plan that includes diversification throughout the industry's ecosystem. His operation includes stallion shares, as well as broodmares and racing prospects, and he has teamed up with the SF Racing/Starlight Racing stallion-making partnership on several horses, including last year's champion 2-year-old Citizen Bull (Into Mischief).

Asked if he had been tempted to add some colts to his Tattersalls shopping list, Dorman said, “There were two colts that David really loved. My plan is really on the broodmare side, but they were great horses, great conformation, good pages, and so I said if we get priced out on fillies and we're kind of light, maybe we do this. But at the end of the day, I just decided to stick to what we came here for.

“Maybe in another year, if we continue to have strong sales and there's a little bit extra, maybe we'll take a flyer on the colt side. But I'd rather be a small percentage of a larger partnership. I've worked with the SF guys for a couple of years and I think they do a really good job. But I tend to really like the filly game a little bit better. We've gotten lucky with stallions, but it's a lot harder and there are more horses that fall by the wayside. I'm more long term.”

Determined Stud will be represented in the Breeders' Cup Distaff this year by GI Clement L. Hirsch Stakes winner Seismic Beauty (Uncle Mo), who is out of Knarsdale, one of the first mares the operation purchased in 2020. Dorman also enjoyed his highest sale to date when a colt by Gun Runner out of Thoughtfully (Tapit), bred in partnership with Hill 'n' Dale, sold for $3.3 million at last month's Keeneland September sale.

Mapping out the future of the operation, Dorman can look back even as he plans for the future.

“I wanted to get a broodmare band up and running and I didn't want to wait five or eight years for that to happen,” he explained. “So we purposely went and bought mares. Now we have a healthy number of broodmares on the farm in Kentucky. We don't need to go buy five or 10 high-end broodmares.

“We've got some mares that we're selling in November because they're doing well and it makes sense and we want to make room. We've got a big one coming off the track this year, we had a lot coming off the track last year. So this is kind of the natural cycle. I kind of look at it in five-year blocks. And this is the first year of the next five years.”

While acknowledging the many highs and lows in the racing game, Dorman said he wouldn't have it any other way.

“I love the horses,” he said. “I love the characters and the people. The highs are high, the lows are low. That's just life. And if you can get used to it, then you can be joyful and really be grateful and celebrate the good stuff. And then when the bad stuff happens, you just have to realize, the storm hasn't come to stay, it's come to pass. You just have to get through it.”

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