by Dean A. Hoffman, for Scioto Downs

Columbus, OH — Triggerhappyfellow hadn’t won a race since late 2007, but he hit a bulls-eye on Thursday night (July 8) at Scioto Downs, winning for only the third time in 101 career starts.

The 6-year-old pacer was steered to victory by Kayne Kauffman and paid $39.20 to win. He reduced his lifetime mark from 2:05 to 1:57.4 in his winning effort.

Cruisers Bruiser took the early lead for driver Jack Dailey, then surrendered to Sunny New Day. Kauffman kept his horse off the pace early, then pulled the trigger and moved his pacer into contention during the third quarter. Then it was a duel between Triggerhappyfellow and the leader Sunny New Day.

Kauffman coaxed every ounce of effort out of his pacer in the stretch and it paid off as Triggerhappyfellow edged Sunny New Day by a half-length. Favored I Ota Win rallied from far back to claim third.

Triggerhappyfellow was bred by Wendell and Ryan Malone and is owned by Angela Dipaola.

He was winless in three starts as a 2-year-old in 2006, but then won twice in 23 starts as a 3-year-old. He took his 2:05h record at Lebanon Raceway.

In 2008 he started 32 times and had an 0-0-2 slate and in 2009 he faced the starter 31 times with an 0-3-2 slate.

Before Thursday’s race at Scioto, Triggerhappyfellow had started 11 times in 2010 with one third-place finish.

Driver Dan Noble had a driving triple at Scioto on Thursday night.