Catherine Brentzel and Diva de Talma Dominate in $10,000 IDA Development Welcome Speed
Desert Circuit 4, presented by Whittier Trust, welcomed a new winner as action kicked off Wednesday morning. Catherine Brentzel, of Irwin, PA, took the top position in the first National class of the week, the $10,000 IDA Development 1.35m Weelcome Speed, aboard Diva de Talma, a fiery chestnut mare.
“I’ve had her for about two years,” Brentzel, 20, said of “Diva”. “She’s incredible. The footspeed is unmatched and any speed class I enter with her if I do my job I know that she’ll get it done for me as well. I am riding with Uma O’Neill. I’ve been riding with her since the beginning of last summer and we’ve had a great time together.”
Speed was the name of the game, as it always is on Wednesday mornings when this class takes place. Past winner of the class Savannah Jenkins came in second by a very small margin aboard Forastero 2, owned by Enrique Gonzales, while Simon Schroeder brought out a fabulous ride in Lady Gaga, owned by Hidden Ridge, taking third.
“One piece of advice I took going into the ring today, especially because it’s a speed class, was to relax and let go with my body and my hands and let Diva do her job,” Brentzel said of O’Neill’s words of wisdom as she was sent into the ring to do her thing. “I think I end up making up time because of Diva’s footspeed. I was pretty tidy around the turns but I think at the end of the day she covers the ground so quickly and that’s what helps me out the most.”
Brentzel and Diva have competed up to the CSI3* level this past summer, and there are certainly big things ahead as she’s learned how to let the mare do her thing and guarantee the best possible result.
“Diva is a speed demon and when I fight with her I never get the results I want because she knows what she needs to do and I just need to listen to her,” she explained of the mare’s tendencies. “She’s very much a chestnut mare. I had to remember to stay loose in my body.”
Overall it was a stellar day and Brentzel was thrilled with the outcome. “She was jumping fantastic today, and I was super happy with her. She definitely helped me out with the luck side today because she’s always on her A-game. As she jumps through the competition she really sets herself back,” she explained.
Though she’s just an amateur and still just barely into her twenties, she topped a serious class of DIHP regulars, which was a thrill in and of itself. She didn’t let the quality of the class impact her, though, stepping into the ring right after speed veteran James Chawke and a few rounds behind worldwide phenom Gregory Wathelet.
“I went pretty early on and I knew it was going to be a competitive class so I made sure in all the turns I went for it as much as I could and I tried not to leave any margin for error,” she explained of her strategy, knowing the rider caliber to come. “I was almost caught; the competition was very very high.”
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