FOR many, Easter Monday is nothing to do with feeling sick of chocolate and everything to do with thundering hooves and excessively, large hats - because it is also the start of Grand National week. Fairyhouse regulars Michael Smurfit, Dermot Desmond, Tony O'Reilly et al may well be on the road early as this year there is an attractive incentive for early birds who make it through the gates before 12.30 p.m. - in the form of a competition to win a barrel of Jameson, that's 288 bottles of whiskey.

The Taoiseach John Bruton, who is to present the Jameson Irish Grand National winner with the £100,000 prize; Ivan Yates and other Ministers will be mingling with Denis Brosnan, chairman of the Horseracing Authority; Jury's MD Peter Malone; Louis Fitzgerald, owner of the Egon Ronay pub, of the year - The Poitin Still in Rathcoole, Co Dublin; Oliver Cosgrove of the Licensed Trade Association and Billy Kingston of the Westbury Hotel in the city centre.

English trainers crossing the water include Gordon Richards, whose hot tipped horse The Grey Monk is running in the Grand National, and Jenny Pitman whose Grand National runner, Mudahim, is being ridden by Irish jockey Jason Tidley and supported by its owners: a 40 strong syndicate who have all come to Ireland to cheer their investment on. Arthur Moore, the trainer who rode the 1971 Grand National winner, will again be racing Feathered Gale, last year's winner.

At the English Grand National at Aintree on April 5th, J.P. McManus will have two horses running: Time for a Run and Wylde Hyde. Incidentally, last year's winning jockey, Mick Fitzgerald, and his girlfriend Jane Brakenbury did go ahead with their wedding despite Mick's now legendary pronouncement that last year's race was "better than sex . . . the best ten minutes of my life."