STICKNEY, Ill. – Trainer Brendan Walsh has a chance to win consecutive renewals of the Illinois Derby when he sends out Raguel on Sunday at Hawthorne Race Course. Raguel will be a longshot. And it has been a long time since Walsh won the last Illinois Derby with Multiplier in 2017. A combination of Covid-19, an ongoing purse account crisis, and the chaotic nature of the Chicago racing circuit precipitated a seven-year disappearance of a race that returns with a $200,000 purse. The response from horsemen was tepid. The 1 1/8-mile contest drew only six, including Ravin’s Town a twice-started maiden. Ravin’s Town is, if nothing else, a pace factor stretching out from a 5 1/2-furlong sprint in which he showed speed. He could hook up with a faster, far more accomplished stretch-out horse, Patriot Spirit, but if Patriot Spirit could shake loose on the lead over a track that can be kind to inside speed, he’s a win threat, even if his form suggests otherwise. Patriot Spirit’s two worst races came in his only starts beyond seven furlongs, but in the one-turn mile Iroquois at Churchill Downs in September he ran off with his jockey, set an impossible pace, and wilted in the homestretch. On Feb. 10, Patriot Spirit made his 3-year-old bow in the Sam Davis at Tampa Bay Downs, his only two-turn try, and was beaten more than 15 lengths. Strangely, he failed to show any of his ample speed, racing from behind and in traffic from the start. He rebounded last month with a solid third in the six-furlong Hutcheson at Gulfstream Park. Patriot Spirit is by Constitution, often a source of stamina, and while his dam, Mistical Plan, won the Grade 1 Princess Rooney over six furlongs, she has produced capable horses who could stay a middle distance. Two horses, Woodcourt and Le Gris, exit synthetic surface starts at Turfway Park. Woodcourt finished a creditable sixth in the Grade 3 Jeff Ruby, Le Gris just ninth in the listed Rushaway. Those divergent performances aside, Le Gris rates as strong a chance as Woodcourt on Sunday. Trained by Al Stall Jr., who won the 2013 Illinois Derby with Departing, Le Gris is a strapping son of City of Light, and he was not close to a fully formed animal when he turned in two moderate performances at age 2. At the Fair Grounds meet, Le Gris was switched to turf and made two good showings, and he was even better Feb. 3 in a first-level allowance carded for grass but rained onto a sloppy main track. Le Gris beat only modest competition but traveled like a maturing horse who was perfectly comfortable on dirt. Stall thought Le Gris would take to the Tapeta track at Turfway; the horse did not. Woodcourt did run his race in the Jeff Ruby, splitting the field after a commendable fourth, beaten six lengths, in the Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park. Trained by Cipriano Contreras, who spent years on the Chicago circuit as an assistant trainer, and ridden by Contreras’s nephew, Manny Esquivel, Woodcourt appears to have hit his current ceiling, though that might be good enough to win. Real Men Violin would win if he ran back to his fine second last November in the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes, but his two races this year have been dreadful. After being eased in the Louisiana Derby, Real Men Violin twice worked fast at Churchill, but even if he is somewhat overlooked Sunday, there is only so much value to be found in a six-horse race. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.