The unconventional story behind world champion Allegiant
On May 31, Allegiant scorched Stockholm’s Solvalla Racecourse with a 1:48 mile, becoming the world’s fastest trotter ever with her victory in the Elitlopp.
Much like the legendary Moni Maker — who, 28 years earlier, had been the most recent mare to win Sweden’s crown jewel for milers — Allegiant demonstrated considerable ability in North America prior to tackling Europe’s best, having captured divisional Dan Patch Award honors in 2024 after winning the Breeders Crown 3-Year-Old Filly Trot at the Meadowlands that fall.
In two seasons racing on this side of the Atlantic for owner Ryan Smith while under the care of trainers Vernon Beachy and Linda Toscano, the daughter of Tactical Landing-Too Good For You banked $1,043,347 while winning 11 of 27 starts. Following her sophomore campaign, she was purchased for $925,000 by Tobias Persson’s Eagle Rising AB at the 2024 North American Standardbred Mixed Sale and transferred to the stable of Daniel Redén. She has since earned the equivalent of another $550,000 by way of six wins in her first seven starts on Swedish soil, among them victories in 2025 over 1,640 meters (1 mile and 40 yards) in the Group 2 Delicious Lopp and over 2,140 meters (1-5/16 miles) in the Prix Diana Zet, both for 4-year-old mares, before her record-breaking display in the Elitlopp as a 5-year-old.
Mario Zuanetti, whose Atlantic Trot bred Allegiant in partnership with Steve Stewart of Hunterton Farm, recalled his first brush with the champion’s lineage some three decades prior.
“Back then, Tom Crouch, of Kentuckiana Farms, used to keep a couple fillies every year because he wanted to keep them as future broodmares, and Little Ms Queenie was one of them,” explained Zuanetti. “At the time, he was giving me one or two fillies to train.”
Little Ms Queenie, Allegiant’s grandam, debuted for Zuanetti with a third-place finish in a Pennsylvania Sire Stakes leg at The Meadows. The filly from the first crop of American Winner wound up finishing second twice and third three times in her 12-start career while banking a paltry $11,757.
“She was not much, so [Crouch] bred her,” admitted Zuanetti.
Though she struggled on the racetrack, Little Ms Queenie flourished as a broodmare at Kentuckiana. Nine of her 12 foals made it to the races, and three of them cracked six figures in career earnings. Two of them were by Yankee Glide: Knight Of Intrigue 4,1:54.4 ($206,193) and Littlemscantbwrong 3,1:55.2s ($115,701). A third, the Manofmanymissions mare Celebrity Eventsy, won divisions of the Bluegrass and International Stallion Stakes at 2, the Moni Maker at 3, and took her career mark of 1:52.2 as a 4-year-old on her way to a 17-win career worth $600,835 in purses.
The first of Little Ms Queenie’s foals, Too Good For You, never raced, but she has proven herself to be every bit the producer her mother was … and then some.
“[Crouch] kept her, and she then became a broodmare,” explained Zuanetti. “And, obviously, from the production, you can see she did well.”
Too Good For You’s progeny showed immediate promise, with five of her first six foals achieving six-figure bankrolls and three of them taking marks faster than 1:55. The first two, both by Yankee Paco, were Beer Budget 4,1:55.2 ($484,236), whose career highlight was his victory in the 2006 Ontario Sires Stakes Super Final at Woodbine Racetrack; and Only Lonely 3,1:58.1s ($212,293), who won a few minor stakes in Ontario before embarking on a broodmare career of her own before dying in 2019.
“That was it for me until Crouch dispersed [his broodmares],” Zuanetti said. “It was not much of a stock. The only two [worthwhile] in my opinion were Too Good For You and her daughter Only Lonely. We make a deal, and I bought for a client of mine and myself Too Good For You and Only Lonely. And then, in 2012, I moved these mares to Hunterton Farm. At that time, [Too Good For You] was in foal to Donato Hanover.”
The resulting foal was Maracana’ 6,1:56.1f ($111,936), a colt whom Atlantic Trot sold for $45,000 at the 2014 Lexington Selected Yearling Sale. After another colt, named Fitzmagic, Too Good For You produced three fillies in a row — Addie Adversity, Shape Shifter and Clockwork Orange — and Atlantic, together with Stewart, sold them at Lexington, as well. Another colt followed in The Hazelton 3,1:53f ($445,026) — a 2020 son of Muscle Mass who has racked up 24 wins and is still going strong in overnight events in the Mid-Atlantic for trainer Ron Burke — before Zuanetti and Stewart paired Too Good For You with second-year stallion Tactical Landing the following breeding season.
That mating produced Allegiant, who was born May 29, 2021, the 14th foal of her aging dam. Despite what some would consider a pair of red flags, the filly still attracted a $50,000 purchase price from Smith at the 2022 Standardbred Horse Sale, in Harrisburg, Pa.
“When we go to sell yearlings, we have to listen to the buyers — ‘I would never do this, or I would never do that!’” said Stewart, with a chuckle. “One of them is they don’t want a June foal. Well, May 29 is about as close as you’re going to get, so that’s one. The second one is, ‘I would never buy a foal out of an older mare.’ Well, the mare was 21 years old when Allegiant was born.”
“We went to $900,000 on her. And then she goes on and is now the fastest trotter of all time.”
Steve Stewart
Unconventional though her origin story may be, Allegiant has blossomed into a generational talent.
On July 4, 2023, in just her second career start, she won a Kentucky Sire Stakes series final at Oak Grove in a track record 1:53.2, demolishing her competition by 11-1/2 lengths. Later in her rookie season, she proved she could hold her own against the boys, rallying for a third-place finish in the Grade 1 Mohawk Million in her final start as a 2-year-old.
After winning five of 10 races and earning $295,320 as a rookie, Allegiant won six more times as a sophomore, In addition to her Breeders Crown triumph, she was third in the Grade 1 Hambletonian Oaks, won the Grade 3 Moni Maker at Eldorado Scioto Downs, took her seasonal mark of 1:51.1 in the Grade 2 Matron Stakes at Bally’s Dover, and trotted a full second faster than that in defeat to 6-year-old Åke Svanstedt trainee Nelsonbriteagle NO in what would end up her North American swan song, the Grade 2 FanDuel Championship at the Meadowlands.
“Breaking the rules is what she’s been able to do,” said Stewart. “And then, becoming 3-year-old filly of the year here and then selling for $925,000 at the Ohio sale in December. We went to $900,000 on her, but I’m sure that guy (Persson) probably wasn’t done. And then she goes on and is now the fastest trotter of all time.”
Having produced the winners of over $4 million in total purses, it goes without saying that Too Good For You has been a highlight — if not the highlight — of Zuanetti’s breeding career. While the sun is admittedly setting on the now 26-year-old’s prolific broodmare career, Zuanetti and Stewart bred her to Walner this year in the hopes of getting a filly to maintain the bloodline for another generation.
“If we are successful and we get a filly, then we’ll keep her,” said Zuanetti. “But I think this year is basically the last shot. Like Steve said, this is it. It’s almost against the rules of nature, but we’ll see.”
Regardless, Zuanetti and Stewart are delighted with everything they’ve accomplished since acquiring Too Good For You. After all, the distinction of having bred the world’s fastest trotter ever is theirs and theirs alone.
“It’s wonderful that there’s such a love of racing over there and such a big crowd,” said Stewart of Allegiant rewriting harness racing history before a crowd thousands strong at Solvalla. “When you can do it in front of the world stage, there’s no better script that you can write. For everybody involved — the driver, the trainer, the owner, the breeder — it doesn’t get any better.”
This story appears in the August 2026 issue of Hoof Beats, the official magazine of the USTA. To learn more, or to become a subscriber to harness racing’s premier monthly publication, click here.