Going second in a three-horse jump-off, Molly Talla didn’t want to go for broke. Duncan McFarlane and Eezy had picked up eight faults in their jump-off trip. But she did know that Jeff Campf would follow her and he’s a fierce competitor. So, Talla played it a bit safe and guided Cameron Hills Shan Roe to a conservative clear round in 44.06 seconds. And when two rails fell for Campf and Lady D, Talla could breathe easy, knowing she’d won the $75,000 Bayer Grand Prix CSI-W, the feature event of the HITS Desert Circuit III, Feb. 8-12 in Indio, Calif.

“When Duncan had rails, it took the pressure off me, but I knew Jeff was behind me. I wanted to push Jeff to have to go a little faster. But I went a little slower to the last jump than I could have, because I wanted to make sure I left it up,” Talla said.

The 20 points Talla earned towrd the FEI World Cup West Coast league standings should come in handy. After breaking a collarbone last fall, Talla had to sit out the first four World Cup-qualifying classes. Before this class, she was in 22nd, but she should move closer to the top 10 now. Only two West Coast U.S. riders get to travel to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in April for the FEI World Cup Final. Talla, 27, hopes she’ll be one of them, but won’t be too disappointed if it doesn’t happen, since she got a late start on qualifying.

With his two rails and a time just shy of Talla’s clean score, Campf claimed second aboard Lady D. And McFarlane’s lead-off round took third. Mark Watring, the 2003 Pan American Games gold medalist, has a new talented gray horse to follow in Sapphire’s footsteps. The athletic gray Brilliant claimed fourth today with just one time fault over the first-round course.

Richard Spooner, a perennial favorite at any Indio class, seemed to be poised for another victory, after claiming first and second in the $30,000 Ariat Grand Prix on Friday. But his young horse, Live Fire, who won on Friday, got a bit unnerved and collected 24 faults. The veteran Robinson, now 18 years old, had just one rail at the bogey fence of the first round, the A element of an oxer-vertical one-stride combination. And Spooner’s last chance, Ezrah, stopped at the triple combination after pulling an earlier rail, and Spooner retired him. The current World Cup leader on the West Coast, Spooner didn’t pick up any points.

Week three of Indio also marked the mid-point of the circuit, and hunters battled it out for mid-circuit awards. This week, Nicoletta von Heidigger earned the championship and reserve in the small junior hunter, 15 & under division with Breckenridge and Sienna, then took the tricolor in the large section with her Small Town. Breckenridge and Small Town wrapped up the mid-circuit awards.

In the adult amateur hunter, 56 & over, Nancy Shaw claimed the mid-circuit championship and reserve with her Deveraux and Claudine, after clinching the week III tricolor with Deveraux. And while Marianne Fellman wasn’t in contention for a mid-circuit award, she couldn’t have been happier with her week III adult amateur, 46-55 tricolor with As We Speak. After a three-year hiatus from showing, this was her first time back competing over three-foot.

Lynn Walsh’s inimitable Ocean Park took the mid-circuit awards in the regular working and amateur-owner hunter, 36 & over divisions, while Katie Polk reunited with Eminem for the amateur-owner, 18-35 mid-circuit honors. She’d leased the flashy black gelding out for two years while concentrating on fashion school, and was ecstatic to be winning with him again.

Molly Sorge’s story on HITS Desert Circuit week II will appear in the Feb. 24 issue, and for full mid-circuit results, please see the HITS website at www.hitsshows.com.