Insan Mala starts back in allowance

Insan Mala, a Grade 1 stakes performer last year at 3, returns to the allowance ranks to launch her 2006 campaign in Saturday's third race at Gulfstream Park. The $37,000 allowance feature will be decided at 1 1/16 miles on turf and is one of six races on the nine-race program scheduled for the grass.

launched her U.S. career here last spring with a last-to-first 1 1/2-length victory in an entry-level allowance. An Irish-bred trained by Christophe Clement, Insan Mala kept a steady diet of stakes competition the remainder of the year, registering her only other victory against restricted company in the Tenski Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 28. She tried Grade 1 company two weeks later in the Garden City Breeders' Cup Stakes, but finished fourth and last, 9 3/4 lengths behind race winner Luas Line. In her last race, she finished eighth in the Grade 3 Valley View in October.

Insan Mala has been prepared for her return at Payson Park, where she turned in a bullet half-mile work on April 7. Jose Lezcano will ride.

, a two-time winner earlier in the meet, returns to allowance company and is the horse to beat. Trained by Mark Hennig, La Dolce Vita rallied to score head decisions in a first-level allowance Jan. 11 and second-level allowance Feb. 18, before shipping to Tampa Bay Downs, where she was never a factor in the Grade 3 Hillsborough Stakes on March 18.

, claimed for $60,000 by trainer Michael Collins on March 20, has held her form extremely well over the local turf course this season. She has registered 2 wins and 2 seconds from 4 starts at the meet and has won 4 of her last 7 outings dating back to Nov. 8 at the Meadowlands.

Winnow, Moon Dolly, and Alisa's Hope rounds out the starting lineup.