Zenyatta gets accustomed to her new Lane's End home

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Zenyatta hasn’t been turned out in a paddock yet at her new home, Lane’s End Farm in Versailles, Ky., but she has been taking some walks since her arrival there on Monday night.

On Thursday, the 6-year-old Horse of the Year contender stepped out in what one observer described as “a very large paddock” with a distant view of the broodmares who will be her neighbors during her breeding career at the farm. Zenyatta was led around the paddock at a walk by a Lane’s End broodmare manager, Charles Campbell, and tugged strongly against her lead shank while performing her trademark foreleg extensions.

Periodically, she would pause and gaze toward the mares in the nearby pasture.

Although the farm has not opened its doors to the public, some Zenyatta fans’ tributes have made it through to the mare’s barn, according to one person. They included a glittery pink placard, perhaps three feet long, proclaiming, “The Queen Reigns Here.” Another was a Christmas stocking labeled “Lady Z.” Both were placed on walls by the Street Cry mare’s stall.

Zenyatta, winner of the 2009 Breeders’ Cup Classic and 18 other races, retired in November after losing the 2010 Classic by a short head to Blame, her chief rival for Horse of the Year honors. She is owned by Ann and Jerry Moss, who accompanied her to a retirement celebration at Keeneland Monday night in Lexington before shipping her by van to Lane’s End.

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