Plainville, MA — When Manador won the $165,000 Massachusetts Breeders Stakes for 3-year-old male pacers at Plainridge Park on Thursday (Oct. 29), Jessica Okusko registered the 1,000th training win of her career.
Okusko first started training in 2007 and has since posted outstanding numbers while regularly competing in the New York Sire Stakes and on the Grand Circuit.
One of the biggest 3-year-old stars of 2015 came from Okusko’s barn. She developed Dude’s The Man (1:48.4, $792,387), whose major win was the $400,000 Adios Pace that year.
Based out of Vernon, N.Y., and a regular leading conditioner at Vernon Downs, Okusko has been training for Wanda Polisseni’s Purple Haze Stable for many years now and has developed a number of stars during that tenure as well.
For her career, Okusko now has 1,000 wins, 806 seconds and 767 thirds from her 5,171 starts and has earned $10,943,815 in purses as a result.
Manador won in 1:54.2 and returned $148.20 to win, making that milestone victory that much more memorable.