‘Wonderful Athletes’: World’s Fastest Trotter Now Represents Standardbreds In The Show Ring

Homicide Hunter, a 13-year-old gelding, competes for MMXX Standardbreds, which also operates an off-track adoption program

Lillian Davis Updated: Original: Jul 21, 2025

What's better than being the world's fastest trotter and earning over $1.7 million on the racetrack? Achieving that and being an example of what Standardbreds can do off the racetrack.
Homicide Hunter was a formidable face on the racetrack, and after a few years off as a pasture ornament, the 13-year-old gelding is now just as formidable in the pleasure show ring.
He won 41 races from 91 starts and made $1,761,577 in career earnings, with his most prestigious victory coming in the 2018 Breeders' Crown Open Trot. In October 2018, Homicide Hunter set the world record for a trot mile in 1:48.4 when winning the $145,000 Allerage Farms Open Trot at The Red Mile in Lexington, Ky.
After one start in 2020, Homicide Hunter was retired by owner Crawford Farms, at least until they decided the bay gelding needed a job again.

In the three months since arriving at Molly d'Agostino's MMXX Standardbreds in March, he has been started under saddle and competed in seven or eight shows.
"I can put anyone on and throw him into the ring, and he'd win a blue," said d'Agostino.
Homicide Hunter competes for the MMXX Standardbreds team in English pleasure, hunter under saddle, halter, and showmanship classes. The team, which was founded in 2023, serves as a traveling advertisement for MMXX Standardbreds' adoption program, which places Standardbreds in homes after they retire from racing.
"I think, in the horse community, in the riding community, which is who we try to target, they don't realize that Standardbreds can do things like show and win," said d'Agostino. "They think that 'Oh, they're ugly,' or they can't canter, or they can't do this, can't do that. The only way to combat that for our adoption program was to just go out and do it and say, 'Hey, actually they can.'"

MMXX Standardbreds has placed approximately 275 Standardbreds into homes since starting the competition team.
"It's all because of the show team," she said. "Honestly, people see it and they're like, 'Wow, Standardbreds can do that? Okay, sign me up,' because they're cheap, they're sensible, and they're really wonderful athletes."

MMXX Standardbreds competes for points awarded by the Standardbred Pleasure Horse Organization of New Jersey, which, D'Agostino said, is a similar process to how champions are selected for AQHA show champions.
The team has won SPHO awards with three horses thus far, including former claimer Fox Valley Photog, stakes winner Go Daddy Go, and kill pen rescue Mac Shamus. Homicide Hunter is third in total points (223) this year.
MMXX Standardbreds are in the midst of their show season, with the National Standardbred Horse Show on Sept. 19 to Sept. 21 in Allentown, N.J., being the major goal. The show includes the flat classes Homicide Hunter competes in, but also barrel racing and jumping classes.
D'Agostino hopes a good performance at the national show will make him a champion in two sports: "That's goal number one."

Homicide Hunter will stay in training with MMXX Standardbreds for 2026, with an eye on major pleasure shows.
'It would be just such a big achievement for our breed to be able to compete at that level with Quarter Horses and traditional sorts of show horse breeds," she said.
"I think nine out of 10 people have no idea who he is," said d'Agostino about Homicide Hunter. Once people hear his story, she says they are quick to get their picture with the Breeders' Crown winner.
She shared that while aftercare is her priority, she likes to inform people about fractional ownership of racing Standardbreds when they visit the team at shows.
"We are hoping to create a new client profile for racing," said D'Agostino. "People who are not exposed to it, who wouldn't even know the first part about how to get into it."
More information about MMXX Standardbreds, including their competition roster, which includes the full-brother to Hambletonian winner Atlanta, and their adoption application, can be found on their website, https://www.mmxxstbs.com/.

By Lillian Davis

Editorial Intern Lillian graduated from the University of Colorado Colorado Springs in 2025, where she spent four years with the university's student paper, The Scribe, as a photographer and sports reporter.

Lillian's interest in racing began after watching Orb win the 2013 Kentucky Derby, and she was locked in with racing after American Pharoah won the Triple Crown in 2015.