JC / Railbird

Adam Kitchingman is now the fourth Santa Anita trainer to be cited for running a horse with excess carbon dioxide levels. His horses, along with those of Julio Canani, Vladimir Cerin, and Jeff Mullins — who were cited earlier in the month for the offense — are now subject to a 24-hour pre-race quarantine. Here’s the twist in the story: Unlike Canani, Cerin, and Mullins, Kitchingman isn’t denying the milkshake allegation. “I got caught playing with fire, and I’ll have to reconsider what I was doing. I’m not going to deny it like everybody else who got caught. It’s not going to happen again. Unfortunately, because this is a competitive business, you do stuff you’ve got to do to try to win races.” Ah, it was the pressure to win that drove him to such desperate lengths. What’s that saying about a hot kitchen? If you can’t stand the heat, get out — don’t cheat. (Daily Racing Form)
Or, is Kitchingman denying the charge? “Like other alleged perpetrators, Kitchingman said the high test reading for total carbon dioxide must have come from feed supplements, though when asked by a reporter, he said he didn’t know which.” He does repeat the part about racing being a competitive business, so his story hasn’t changed completely. (San Diego Union-Tribune)

– Wow: Handle is up 151% at Oaklawn this year thanks to the track’s new Instant Racing machines. All the extra money means that Oaklawn is increasing its purses. The track also announced on Wednesday that it’s renaming the Oaklawn Breeders’ Cup Stakes the Azeri Breeders’ Cup Stakes in honor of the champion mare. (TT)
– Sweet Catomine heads the list of 144 Kentucky Oaks nominees. (LHL)
– The Friends of New York Racing web site is up. Your help is wanted.
– The last Thoroughbred breeding farm within the Boston metro area is being sold to a developer. The land will be turned into a subdivision. (Adv.)
– Beulah Park’s handicapping twins, Katie and Jenna Felty, visited a NYC OTB parlor this week. “I shaved, I took a shower, just for these girls today … I’m gonna bet their horses,” said one fan. (NYDN)
– Send links, comments to railbird at jessicachapel dot com

The racing shelf at your local bookstore is about to get more crowded as several new books on the sport are published this spring. Jockey Jerry Bailey’s autobiography, “Against the Odds,” will be out in April and promises to detail “the making of both a man and a champion.” Readers who haven’t had enough of the Smarty Jones story will want to pick up “Smarty Jones: The Horse that Captured America’s Heart,” by Jay Acton. Marvin Drager writes about horses that captured more than the country’s heart in “The Most Glorious Crown: The Story of America’s Triple Crown Thoroughbreds from Sir Barton to Affirmed.” For those looking for an in-depth tour of racing, T.A. Landers offers a guide to the sport’s in and outs in “Insider’s Guide to Horseracing,” while Frank Scatoni gives readers “Six Secrets of Successful Bettors,” and Ted McClelland profiles the handicappers and track habitues he met over the course of a year in “Horseplayers: Life at the Track.”