Dorman Builds Foundation With Diverse Broodmare Band

Like paintings in a museum, a Thoroughbred broodmare band is a carefully curated collection of pedigrees and physicals; racing records and black-type honors. Like an artist's exhibition, they often start small, growing over time as new horses are brought into the fold. For some Thoroughbred breeders it can take years, decades, and even generations to establish a commercially successful band capable of producing high-quality stock. But buying Thoroughbreds, like buying fine art, is a matter of taste. And sometimes, you can't wait for a collection to come together. Sometimes, you find a gallery and buy the whole exhibit. In a matter of months, namely the fall breeding stock sale season of 2020, Matt Dorman of Determined Stud assembled a broodmare band of more than 20 mares. His nascent breeding program, which will be based in Maryland, will finally have a permanent home in the fall of 2021 when renovations to his recently purchased farm are complete. "We are still waiting on a lot of the permitting for building the barns, so at the moment there is not much we can do on the property," said Dorman, who hopes the farm will be fully prepared to house the majority of his horses by October. "Part of it was a working farm. When I bought the property, there were cows on it. We cleaned up the whole property and took down a lot of the trees. So on that part, I'd say 25% of the farm and land is working now, and we're just renovating the buildings. "We have a nice barn from the 1920s, and there is also a dairy barn from the 1930s. We restored the outside of that as well. We thought we might use it as a quarantine barn, but we haven't decided yet. There is also an old restored house from the 1870s and we are cleaning up the inside. The plan is that this is where the folks that work on the farm will live." Becoming a Thoroughbred breeder will mark the start of a second career for Dorman. Born and raised in Maryland, he grew up attending races with his father at Pimlico Race Course and the now-defunct Bowie Race Track, where he acquired a taste for the sport. Racing would continue to be a hobby for Dorman, who chose to go the business route, founding Credible Behavioral Health, an electronic health records company dealing primarily in mental health. In 2010, with some expendable cash in his pocket, Dorman decided to get back into racing and purchased a portion of a horse named Disguise from trainer Phil Schoenthal. The Virginia-bred gelding, who went on to win several races for the pair, was the start of a new business relationship as well as a friendship. "I sold him, I think, 5% of that horse so he could see the bills and the expenses before he jumped in completely and put real money in the game," said Schoenthal, who has worked as Dorman's sole trainer for the past decade. "We won a couple of races, did pretty well, and we had some fun. "After that, we claimed a couple of more horses and eventually landed on a mare, Staged Affair, in 2012. We claimed her at Colonial Downs. She was a Virginia-bred and ran well but she had a little injury so we retired her and she actually became Matt's first broodmare. That was when he really got involved." Dorman sold Credible Behavioral Health in August 2020 and shifted his focus to consulting. With the transaction completed, he decided it was finally time to add another layer to his Thoroughbred operation—which races under the name of D Hatman Thoroughbreds—and purchased a 400-plus acre property near Boyds, Md., that he christened Determined Stud. In addition to buying yearlings and weanlings, he decided it was time to build a broodmare band, the plan being to breed horses for his own program as well as foals to sell in the commercial market. "I started my company in 2000 and grew it into the second-largest of its kind in the U.S. and then sold it," Dorman said. "This was the next thing I wanted to do … so I cashed out a good chunk of it. It's just good timing." In making his shortlist, Dorman relied on Schoenthal, Scott Mallory of Mallory Farm in Kentucky—with whom he boarded his first mare, Staged Affair—and David Wade of Sycamore Hall and Northview Stallion Station in Maryland. "I suppose like every breeder, Matt wants to breed top-end horses, and he wants to also be able to sell them commercially. If not, he wants to race," said Schoenthal. "That immediately narrows down a lot of the mares you want to buy. I go through the catalog, and Matt is really learning the process and he will go through the catalog and make a list and compare it to what I have, then we discuss it. "A friend of mine has a great saying: If you're hunting for elephants, you want to see signs of elephant dung. If you're looking for top-class horses or commercial horses, you have to see that in the pedigree. I have a basic theory that it is an unfair question to ask a mare or stallion to produce something better than themselves. The fundamental question I ask is, 'If this mare or this stallion reproduces itself, will I be happy with the results?' From that perspective, every stallion in Kentucky really fits that mold. But the mares are a lot more tricky. "I would say half the mares in the catalog of any given horse sale, if they reproduced themselves, you'd feel sorry for yourself. "Ideally, we're looking for mares that have class and speed. You have to find what we consider the sweet spot. You like to see black-type close up, but I like to see a mare that was fast herself or, if she wasn't fast, she needs to have proved that she's thrown a foal or two who were. If she hasn't done that, for me, it's unfair to buy that horse and expect her to produce a stakes winner." Once Dorman and Schoenthal go through the catalogs, Mallory and Wade—who board Dorman's horses in Kentucky and Maryland, respectively—page through behind them to double check each of their choices ahead of purchase. "Myself and David, we both have a lot of experience in mares, and there are small things you have to look for like feet problems. Unless you've dealt with things like that, you don't know what to look for," Mallory said. "Matt and Phil went through the catalog and picked what they liked, and then David and I knew what type of mares they wanted, so we would go do the physical inspections." At the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky November sale, Schoenthal and Dorman signed the ticket on four horses—three mares and one weanling—for receipts of $1.1 million. Shopping the Keeneland November sale, the pair again signed the ticket on 11 mares and three weanlings for $4.53 million. The most expensive of those was Hip 465, Style and Grace, a Curlin half sister to grade 1 winner Furthest Land, purchased for $800,000 from the consignment of Lane's End, agent. Offered in foal to Lane's End stallion City of Light, whose first foals are yearlings, the 5-year-old was bred in Kentucky by Dr. Catherine Wills. Style and Grace is out of the Rahy mare Flagrant, who is a half sister to Lone Star Derby (G3) winner Dynever. Dorman and Schoenthal returned to Keeneland in January for the horses of all ages sale where they picked up an additional six mares. Receipts for those purchases came to $2,175,000. Among those was the most expensive to be purchased through the ring by the operation, Southern Ring, an $875,000 Speightstown mare out of Seeking the Ring (by Seeking the Gold). Consigned as part of the historic Sam-Son Farm dispersal, the Ontario-bred is a multiple grade 3 winner at Woodbine and offered in foal to leading North American sire Into Mischief. "I honestly never know how many Matt would like to buy when we go to a sale, so we do whatever he decides to do," explained Schoenthal. "We bought several who were in foal the first time. Or we tried to find a slightly older mare who was a proven stakes producer. Those are a bit harder to find, but I think we bought a nice array. I also privately bought a filly off the racetrack for him who was a stakes winner of $400,000 but who didn't have a fancy pedigree, but she was a rock-solid racehorse. We're trying different angles to see what works and go from there. "From a business standpoint, you have to look at it and say, 'If we're going to do this, let's do it on a larger scale. That way we have more foals to take to the horse sales in the fall and we can get it off the ground running, as opposed to wading in slowly.' " All mares purchased by Dorman were sent to Mallory's farm in Kentucky before being shipped to Wade's Sycamore Hall in Maryland to foal. The purpose, Dorman said, is to support his state and to make sure all of the foals born to his program are registered Maryland-breds. Once the foals are born, the mares and babies return to Mallory where the mares are bred back to Kentucky stallions. The foals—from which Dorman plans to keep the fillies and sell the colts—will remain with Mallory where they will be prepped for the sales or shipped off to be broken ahead of training. "I think there is an opportunity to have really high-quality broodmares in Maryland bred to Kentucky sires," said Dorman. "We will foal them all in Maryland and take advantage of the program there." "I think it's an excellent broodmare band that he's built," said Mallory. "Those are the kinds of mares anyone would want. He's got a mix of some young and some old, some who are out of stakes winners or half siblings to stakes winners, and some that are stakes winners themselves. It's a good mixture. He's gone about this the right way. He hasn't bought all of one type of mare. He's spread things out and, hopefully, we will get lucky. "It's a huge joint effort. Logistically, taking 22 mares to Maryland, foaling them out, then taking them all back to Kentucky to be bred, is a huge effort. But we all think the world of Matt, and we're trying to help him have the best experience as he can in this industry because as everyone knows, this is a tough business." With the 2021 breeding season officially begun and close to a dozen foals already on the ground, Dorman splits his time between consulting and a weekly trip to Sycamore Hall, where he regularly checks in on his budding broodmare band. "Usually what happens is if I go there on a Wednesday, they foal the next night after I've left," joked Dorman. "I go up to see the mares each week, especially if there are new foals. There are a few weeks coming up where we will have eight or 10 mares foaling, so I'll probably go up there and maybe stay a week so I can be there when those foals are born." The fall will mark the first season of selling for Dorman, who is hopeful that his experiment—and the mares he's chosen—will produce the kinds of foals that will reward the hard work of his team in the sales ring. For his part, Schoenthal is looking forward to a new generation of homebred runners in his barn that could help propel the partnership to new heights on the racetrack. "As these mares foal, I've had to bite my lip a little because I will get a text or photo from the farm or Matt when a mare foals. Of course, I'm secretly hoping the foals will be fillies because I might have a better chance of keeping them and training them," said Schoenthal. "It's exciting. It doesn't happen very often in this business where we get the chance to help someone build a broodmare and racing band like this. It's been like playing fantasy football. We laugh because when we talk, I often say, 'Our mares and our foals,' and I don't own a part of any of them, but I'm emotionally invested in their success. "As a trainer, there are a lot of wonderful horsemen out there who never get a chance to be in the headlines because they don't have stock good enough to put them there. When you're trying to make your way in this business, you have to hope you get lucky and have a horse that jumps up, or you meet the right people who help you put those kinds of horses in your barn. I'm grateful to work with someone like Matt who wants to put horses like that in my barn, that can help us get there." With runners in the barn, a farm close to completion, and a new crop of foals to look forward to, Determined Stud's 2021 will likely be a debut to remember. "We think that at Thanksgiving, we will be able to have everyone there at the farm and all the staff and be ready to go," Dorman said. "The colts, we will see how they are, and if they're in good shape, we will sell them as weanlings. If there are some superstar colts, we will probably hold on to them; otherwise, they will go. With some of the prices we've seen for weanlings, it would make sense if we have some good ones to move them along then. "It's exciting. The yearlings that we bought in September and October are now 2-year-olds, and some of those are training incredibly well. Between the mares, the foals, and the new runners, this should be an exciting time." This story first appeared in the Feb. 27 edition of BloodHorse Magazine. To purchase a copy, please visit BloodHorse.com/Tablet or Shop.BloodHorse.com.