Firey Oscar serving Sweeney family well A course and distance winner and runner-up here a fortnight back, Firey Oscar defied the welter-burden of twelve stone four in the concluding Suir (Q.R.) Handicap Hurdle at Clonmel. Colman Sweeney helped to off-set that impost somewhat by claiming three pounds off his mother Joan's eight-year-old and in the end the now three time winner had a length and a quarter to spare over Battlemount. The 5/2 favourite led on the run-in and kept on best. The nicely supported 6/1 hope, Wing It Lady was left eight and a half lengths behind in third. Meanwhile the more than admirable fifteen-year-old A New Story ran another good race to finish sixth. Colman's father Rodger trains Firey Oscar and he quipped: "We'll stay below Cashel (lower grades at the 'country' tracks) with him. You have no business going above there with a horse like him. "Hopefully we'll pick up another one with him and he might run in a small chase along the line too." (TW & EM)
