Determined Stud

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...

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....

A Gun Runner son (hip 177) of 'TDN Rising Star' Thoughtfully (Tapit) set off late fireworks just four hips from the end of Monday's opening session at Keeneland September when Peter Brant, signing on behalf of M.V. Magnier & White Birch Farm, outlasted all comers to sign the ticket at $3,300,000. Bred by Hill n Dale Equine Holdings, Inc & Determined Stud, the colt's dam brought $950,000 herself as a broodmare at FTKNOV in 2019. M.V. Magnier and White Birch also bought her first foal, a now 2-year-old son of...

There's a pattern. Four times in her career, My Racehorse and Peter Leidel's Seismic Beauty (f, 4, Uncle Mo--Knarsdale, by Medaglia d'Oro) has gone straight to the lead and each time she's won big, but never bigger than she did Saturday in the $400,000 GI Clement L. Hirsch Stakes at Del Mar. It was the first Grade I victory of her career following her first graded score in the GII Santa Margarita Stakes May 25 at Santa Anita. Saturday's win nets her a 'Win and You're In,' fees-paid berth to...

New investors at the elite level of our sport are clearly being well briefed in the odds they need to overcome. But if nobody can have failed to notice one operation pronouncing itself "Resolute," only gradually are people becoming as aware of another that had already been branded as "Determined." As we'll see, a certain staunchness is not only innate to Matt Dorman of Determined Stud but has also been fortified by experience, some of it as challenging as life can throw at us. The upshot is a conspicuous sense...

6th-Del Mar, $76,500, Msw, 8-30, 3yo/up, f/m, 6f, 1:09.06, ft, 5 lengths. SEISMIC BEAUTY (f, 3, Uncle Mo--Knarsdale {SP, $103,692}, by Medaglia d'Oro), a $400,000 FTKNOV weanling turned $550,000 KEESEP yearling, led into the final furlong of her Aug. 3 unveiling, but was beaten on the wire by One Magic Philly (Good Magic) while earning a 79 Beyer Speed Figure. Accordingly sent away as the 1-5 jolly and carrying the Peter Leidel colors, Seismic Beauty jumped beautifully and alternated outside a rival through an opening quarter in :21.99. Firmly in...

The Keeneland January sale got its third seven-figure horse when Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa's John Sikura and Determined Stud's Matt Dorman partnered up to purchase Star Act (Street Cry {Ire}) (hip 144) for $1.2 million. The 13-year-old mare, dam of GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies winner Just F Y I (Justify), was originally led out unsold at $950,000 during the auction's first session Monday. "She is a class mare," Dorman said Wednesday. "She's a Grade I producer. She has a phenomenal horse who is three-for-three and primed for next...

by Jessica Martini & Christie DeBernardis LEXINGTON, KY -- The momentum from Monday's opening session of the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale continued into the first session of Book 2 Tuesday in Lexington with a pair of mares bringing seven figures. "I would describe it as a solid day," said Keeneland President and CEO Shannon Arvin. "Overall, we are very happy with the gross, very happy with the median and average being up over last year." During Tuesday's session, 197 horses sold for $35,073,000. The average of $178,036 was up...

TIMONIUM, MD - The Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Fall Yearlings Sale gained momentum throughout its first session Monday in Timonium, with a filly by Uncle Mo bringing the day's top price when selling for $320,000 to Legion Bloodstock. A total of 145 yearlings sold Monday for $3,947,200. The average was $27,222 and the median was $14,000. The buy-back rate was 18.5%. During last year's opening session, 149 horses grossed $4,577,300 for an average of $30,720 and a median of $20,000. The buy-back rate was 16.3%. Ten yearlings sold for six figures Monday,...

Matt Dorman, who began building a boutique broodmare band last year, officially has a new home for his Determined Stud after purchasing Susan Hudon's 216-acre Sierra Farm in Lexington. Tom Biederman's Biederman Real Estate marketed and sold the property. "It's a turnkey operation," Dorman said of the property on Mt. Horeb Pike. "I have a lot of respect for what Ed Hudon and his wife did there. Ed unfortunately passed away a couple of years ago, but they built a phenomenal horse farm. It's horse ready and it's human ready--which...

Matt Dorman made an immediate impact when he entered the bloodstock sales last fall looking to build a new broodmare band at his Determined Stud. The Maryland native opened his buying spree at the Fasig-Tipton November sale where he purchased four mares--including the $1.1-million Desert Isle (Bernardini) in partnership with John Sikura's Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa--for a total of $2.125 million. Dorman returns to Fasig-Tipton Tuesday, but this time as a seller as he offers three weanlings through Scott Mallory's consignment. "It's mixed emotions," Dorman said of Determined Stud's...