Parliament won four of his first five starts since joining the Wangaratta trainer from New Zealand but hadn't been placed in his last three coming into the $27,000 feature.

However after being afford a sweet run by Blaike McDougall, he was the punters pal after being backed into a $1.85 favourite.

He went on to down Old Man's Angel ($6) by a neck.

While Parliament took his time to get past Old Man's Angel in the straight, Dale was pleased with the effort.

"It doesn't matter how you win as long as you get the job done," Dale said.

"We were pleased and I think there is improvement to come still.

"Blaike McDougall suggested maybe the blinkers should come off as he seemed just to be waiting for other horses to come up to him and looking around a bit and being casual."

It was Dale's first success in the Cootamundra Cup.

He admitted he pulled the wrong rein with the five-year-old, which saw his formline dip.

"It was my fault," Dale said.

"I had two runs on the heavy track, which just did not suit him, and two weeks ago at Tatura in a benchmark 64 I wanted to run him just to get a good hit out under his belt.

"He carried 62.5 kilos first up for 30 days over a mile and he took great benefit from the run.

"I think that was indicative winning the Cootamundra Cup at open handicap."

Now Dale is eyeing off a place in the Melbourne Cup Carnival Country Series heat (1600m) at Seymour on October 20.

The $100,000 benchmark 70 race for country trained horses is the fifth heat of the series which concludes with a $500,000 final on Oaks Day at Flemington next month.

"At this point in time we will have a look at it," Dale said. "If it looks ridiculously strong maybe we won't go but at this point of time that is the plan that we're working towards."

On a difficult day with wind causing plenty of headaches at Cootamundra, Kayla Nisbet led the way with a treble.

She won three straight races, firstly with Tumut trainer Kerry Weir and Jounama.

Nisbet then tasted success with Ron Weston and John Nisbet with Maddie's The Boss before winning on Gypsy Flyer for Matthew Dale.

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