Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 4, 1990                   TAG: 9004040127
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

ROANOKE WON'T RUN IN KENTUCKY DERBY

Nedlaw Stables owner Ted Sprinkle said Tuesday that Roanoke will stay off the track for 30 days and then take another month to recover from an illness.

Sprinkle, a retired veterinarian who puts together racing partnerships for Nedlaw in upstate New York, said the earliest Roanoke would run is the Belmont Stakes on June 9.

"He'll be on the shelf for 30 days," Sprinkle said. "Roanoke came out of the Florida Derby beat up and very ill. He was probably ill going in. I knew he wasn't right when I saw him come out of the gate."

Roanoke finished seventh in the nine-horse field on March 17 at Gulfstream Park.

"He had diarrhea going to the paddock," Sprinkle said. "We just thought it was nerves, but he was pretty sick. We're not going to run him now until he's 100 percent. He's too good a horse to send out there when he's not right."

Sprinkle said veterinarians at Gulfstream said Roanoke has a kidney infection, but the owner-doctor said, "I'm reluctant to say that."

Roanoke finished in the money in all six of his races as a 2-year-old, winning three times.

"He'll be out all of April, and then we'll spend May getting him back [in shape]," Sprinkle said. "Roanoke definitely won't run before June, but later in the summer he should be OK."

Keywords:
HORSE RACING