Longtime horseman Howard Okusko Sr., who not only was part of the construction team that built Vernon Downs in the early 1950s but also trained his stable of horses at the New York harness racetrack since it opened in 1954, passed away Thursday afternoon, May 20, in St. Elizabeth Medical Center in Utica, N.Y. after a brief illness. He was 86.
Mr. Okusko was born in Utica, N.Y. on Jan. 9, 1935. He attended St. Francis De Sales School and resided in the area his entire life.
“My dad never left Vernon Downs, when he always could have,” said Mr. Okusko’s son, Howard Jr., also one of Vernon Downs’ leading trainers and drivers through the years. “He always stayed at Vernon.”