Traverse Seelster headed to New York's Saratoga Casino and Raceway on Friday night for the first time off an eye-popping mile at Harrington Raceway in Delaware.

Under the care of trainer Amber Buter for the first time, the six-year-old Ontario-sired trotter was assigned the outside post in Friday’s $17,000 Open Handicap Trot.

Leading driver Billy Dobson floated the race’s 1-5 favourite out early and landed him mid-pack. Moving first over at the half-mile pole, Traverse Seelster appeared overpowering and cruised by the front-running Just Like Lloyd (Mark Beckwith) before stopping the timer in 1:56. Count Speed (Wally Hennessey) also made up quite a bit of ground in the final half to finish second in the feature while longshot A Megabuck (Chris Long) came on for third.

For Traverse Seelster, the victory in his local debut was the 29th of his career in 98 starts and served as one of three on the evening for Dobson. The son of Angus Hall is owned by Keith Pippi.

(With files from Saratoga Raceway)