Connections double up at Vernon Downs Friday

Leading driver Howard Okusko, Jr. and his wife, top trainer Jessica Okusko, gave Wanda Polisseni’s Purple Haze Stables a pair of winners during Friday night’s nine-race program at Vernon Downs.

 

Unshakeable, shared in ownership by Polisseni, driver Okusko and Conrad Zurich, became a four-time winner at the meet after a 1:57.1 tally in Friday’s eighth event, the week’s $9,000 Open handicap trot, while Tip The Tide high stepped his way to a fifth current local victory, tying L’Argent Hall for most trotting tallies at the Downs through 44 programs.

 

Tip The Tide’s 1:58 performance in the seventh session extended his local winning streak to four and tied him with the pacer Waltrip Hanover, also a member of the Okusko stable, for most consecutive victories at the Downs thus far this season. It was the sophomore colt’s fifth straight win and his sixth season’s score for Polisseni’s Purple Haze Stables.

 

Okusko’s meet leading 13th driving double boosted his local win total to 62, while Jennifer’s conditioning count stands at 40 as the track nears the half-way mark of its 90-card campaign.

 

Defending driving champ Josh Marks produced three wins during Friday’s nine-race program, including a 1:55.4 score behind Wen-Mar’s Memo in the $7,000 sixth session, the week’s Open-2 trotting test.

 

In Friday’s first race, Mc Irishprincess (born on St. Patrick’s Day) earned her maiden victory after Leon Bailey, the track’s top provisional reinsman this year with 10 tallies, steered the day daughter of Pro Bono Best-Leah’s Hero to a 1:58.2 first-place finish, which was just two ticks of the timer off the fastest mile by a 2-year-old filly side-wheeler at the meet. John Mc Neil, a product of the Morrisville College equine program, trains the promising youngster for his mom, Ellen. (Vernon)