I have owned horses trained by Willard for 15 years and can tell you much of this hot streak has explanations. First of all, Willard made a conscious decision many years ago to only train for people he likes who pay their bills on time. I know most of these owners and we mostly have modest bankrolls and modest horses. Tough to win above 5% like that, especially in years past when fields were bigger and consistently better. Much of the success is simply his horses fit these smaller, weaker fields a lot better.
My filly, Morning Miracle, is a much better than average Jersey bred and a half to my stakes placed Porcini Prince. She is carbon copy of him so when she blitzed a Maiden 50k field first time out none of us were surprised. She was simply much better than that group.
My gelding, Enoki Chief, a full brother to MM, is not as talented, but tries hard. He had several solid races in a row at 2, then after freshening several more at 3, before it caught up with him. He desperately needed a rest when he got claimed and yet ran 4 more times including a return to his prior top of 11. After winning $7,000 in 2013 NHC I called trainer Abrams from Vegas airport and bought him back. Gave him two months off and he got happy and healthy and filled out. He ran new top beating a weak field easily which I attribute to a full gas tank and more mature horse....essentially just good horsemanship, nothing sinister or illegal. If very tired horse equaled prior top, certainly a 3 point new top under these conditions should surprise anyone.
