The answer is Michael Pitman, but El Chico is an everpresent sight at racetracks around the South Island.
So it was a perfect sense of timing when the 11yr-old - no, that is not a typo - flew late to claim the group 3 Stewards Stakes at Riccarton, and also brought up Pitman's 1000th win as a trainer in the 21st century.
Pitman, who brought his son, Matthew, into partnership at the start of last season, is the first New Zealand trainer to achieve the milestone and he could not have asked for a better day to bring up the win.
Coupland's Mile day has been a happy hunting ground for Pitman, particularly when training for owners and day sponsors Ray and Jill Coupland.
He claimed a win for the Couplands and co-owner Graeme Hawker in the 1600m maiden with Night Nurse, but the big lollies came in the $100,000 group 3 sprint.
El Chico had racked up 120 starts before yesterday, including the 2011 Stewards Stakes, and Pitman said the gelding had never worked better than he did last week.
Pitman's son, Matthew, was aged 12 in the year 2000 and said El Chico, owned by his father and John and Evelyn Carran, had been a stable favourite since joining the Pitman stable from Ashburton trainer Jan Hay at the start of the 2010-11 season.''
He's a special horse. He's close to everyone in the stable's hearts and its very fitting for him to be the 1000th since the year 2000,'' Matthew Pitman said.
'' He's 11 and he think he's going on 3. He just loves it so much - he thrives on racing. You put him out in the paddock for a spell for a month and he doesn't look as happy. You bring him into work and he starts thriving again.''
Night Nurse's win ensured Pitman and his co-owners earned back the $8000 purchase price in just two races.
Pitman walked away from the 2013 New Zealand Bloodstock select sale with the daughter of Tavistock and The Nightingale for a price which - with the benefit of hindsight - looks very much ''unders''.
Tavistock is one of the glamour sires of the New Zealand thoroughbred industry at the moment, with Tarzino's Victoria Derby win 11 days ago raising the stallion's stocks across the Tasman.
''She's just a nice type. Jim Bruford looked at her for me and said she's a nice horse - that was the sale where they were giving fillies and mares away,'' Pitman said.
Night Nurse's dam, The Nightingale, was unsuccessful in three starts but she is a half-sister to Beat The Fade and Dawn To Dusk, both group winners in Australia.
Night Nurse's connections have had to wait for the 4yr-old to make her mark on the track.
''She's had a few issues,'' Pitman explained.
''She got hurt in the tie-up stalls here one day at Riccarton and we had to put her out for six months.''
