A lot of trotters will pace if shod right (and some will pace pretty regularly in warmup, just like a lot of pacers if not hobbled will trot). I think it's less common for a pacer to trot at speed.
I think it's great to get some new bloodlines in the mix on the trotting side, in any event.
I owned a really nice trotting mare (she was by Great Lullwater) in partnership with Ben Webster. As a first try at breeding we picked a mediocre NY Sire. Ben's father (Fay upstate between Buffalo & Batavia) broke the horse and at 2 he reported that the horse was a "natural trotter" put could switch to the pace and once he did, could give a decent burst of speed. In any event, trying to make a long story shorter, I made the dumb breeder's mistake of naming the horse after my son. He evolved (this is early 1970's) into a horse who could reliabily trot in 2:08 and pace about 2:04 on a half mile track. I wound up seeing a lot of great old racetracks like Hinsdale Raceway, Green Mountain (thank you Billy Silk), Batavia, Buffalo, Monticello and finally Freehold (where I first met and became friends with Anthony Abbatiello). After all that I donated him to a "school" that Lou Miller ran at RR for prospective trainers/drivers and also owners who wanted to be closer to their animals. He started me out, as most do, mucking out stalls etc. and after 4 months I was able to take my donated horse out on the track and did some 2:15 miles at both gaits with him. It helped me enormously as a future owner of some reasonably good trotters. As I learned more about breeding I discovered that the "mediocre" sire we had sent him to threw quite a few pacers (albeit he had a solid trotting pedigree going back for 5 generations.) I also learned to stay away from the breeding business ;>>)
