When Matt Dorman spent 3,240,000 guineas on eight yearling fillies at last year's Tattersalls October Book 1, he pretty much accepted that he'd never again see the 10-15% tariffs he paid on the horses again.
The tariffs, a result of Donald Trump's invocation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to implement taxes on goods being imported from foreign countries in 2025, included a 10-percent rate. The figure was levied on goods coming from the U.K., while 15 percent was assessed on other European Union countries.
That meant that American buyers at the 2025 European yearling and mixed sales who planned to bring their European purchases home would have to pay a tax of 10-15 percent on their purchases, depending upon whether they were English- or Irish-bred.
But when the Supreme Court ruled that the IEEPA did not grant the president the power to impose those taxes, the administration was forced to begin the repayment of $166 billion in tariffs illegally collected from businesses.
Dorman was one of the first in line to apply for a refund of his money.
Imagine his delight when-just seven to eight weeks later-he was informed by his shipping agent, Mersant's President Chuck Santarelli, that he had received the first of the wires from the government that would ultimately total over a half-million dollars.
Dorman and his agent, David Ingordo, had made it a plan to go to Tattersalls to purchase and bring back fillies who would ultimately join his broodmare band. They did so despite knowing that they would pay a tariff.
“We're in it for the long term, and building out a quality broodmare band is our goal,” said Dorman. “So the reason, point blank, for going was to get some of those European bloodlines back over here. There are some great stallions here, but there are also great stallions there, and as, as the breeding gets tighter over here, having those outcrosses, I think, is really important.”
Dorman and his Determined Stables have campaigned Citizen Bull and Rodriguez in partnership with SF Racing, are the breeders of Grade II Santa Margarita winner Seismic Beauty, and campaigned homebred stakes winners Determined Driver and Determined Kingdom.
At Tattersalls, Dorman purchased fillies by No Nay Never, Too Darn Hot (GB), Sea The Stars (Ire), Blue Point (Ire), Frankel (GB), Baaeed (GB), and Lope de Vega (Ire).
“I'm a fan of turf racing for various reasons,” he said. “And so I don't mind bringing pedigrees that are a little turfy back over here. I think there's plenty of opportunity. David Ingordo has played a big role in this. I think we both came to it from similar viewpoints. The tariffs, believe it or not, limited what we did. But there were some really good horses and we just figured, you know, let's go ahead and get the horses. If we were right 50 percent of the time, that would be great and the tariffs won't matter in the long run.”
When the Supreme Court overturned the tariffs, said Dorman, “I was fairly happy, but I knew that it was going to take a long time. I contacted the entity and the individual that we used to handle all the importing, Chuck Santarelli. I asked him if I had to fill out forms or do whatever. And he said no, they would handle it.”
“We have applied for the tariffs on behalf of any horse we imported from April 25, 2025 through February 24, 2026,” said Santarelli. “Anybody that imported a horse, we unilaterally decided to apply on their behalf.”
One day this spring, watching his stepson's baseball game, he got the call that the first wire would arrive the following day. Both he and Santarelli were surprised at the speed of the refund.
Santarelli said that they had so far collected $1.5 million on behalf of their clients, but that the speed of Dorman's refund wasn't the norm. “I currently have 12 uploads that still have not been processed, representing quite a bit of money. I have people asking me what's going on, but we haven't had one entry liquidated since May 18.” And, said Santarelli, information from the government is hard to come by.
After the Supreme Court decision, Trump imposed global 10 percent import surcharges, which are set to expire July 24, before the Aug. 15-17 Arqana August Yearling Sale, or the fall Goffs and Tattersalls Yearling Sales. Santarelli said that he is doubtful that there won't be a tariff to replace them. The administration has already launched investigations under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which authorizes tariffs on goods from countries “engaged in unjustifiable, unreasonable, or discriminatory trade practices.” It is possible that the current 10% global tariff will be replaced with Section 301 tariffs.
Until then, said Dorman, the refunds will only further more trade in the industry, musing that he would have potentially bought another horse or two with the half-million he paid in tariffs. He said that he and Ingordo would be back at the European sales this year. Ingordo added that the refunds, “are helping to open the doors to re-investment.”
But first, you need to take the steps to ask for them.
“I just would encourage people to contact whoever does the importing for you and work with them, make sure they have all the information,” said Dorman. “It's just reversing the transaction. There wasn't a whole lot of pain.”
“It's good for the industry for people to know they're going to get the money back,” he said. “It's good for the industry over in Europe for folks to know that the process works. It may go slowly, but it does work.”
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