IN racing's perpetual state of nervous anticipation, few things attract like a formula, a pattern if you like, which yearning punters can cling to. The Grand National however, the sole, annual taster that millions get of the game's addictive lunacy, attracts more clingons than the ever-roaming starship Enterprise.

The crucial difference is that the National is a lunacy with its feet firmly planted in earthy raucousness, and many of those once-a-year punters believe this year's pattern is already found.

It's not difficult to see why, not when the jockey who 12 months ago unwittingly pushed himself to the forefront of international news by announcing that winning the world's most famous race was more exhilarating than sex again finds himself on one of the favourites.

There is undeniably a pattern there, but Mick Fitzgerald is inclined to play it down. "Yes, there are similarities. Rough Quest was placed in the Cheltenham Gold Cup last year and Go Ballistic was this year. Both horses like to be held up in their races and both are ridden by me," says Fitzgerald. "But I think people might be latching on to it a bit too much." He grins widely in that open way that made him un-self-consciously utter "that quote" last year.

The fallout of that saw Fitzgerald and his wife, Jane, briefly in the full beam of the media's headlights. Picture spreads in the likes of Hello followed, but the 26-year-old from Camolin, Wexford, was never going to let that momentary blast of widespread recognition faze him. The teak-tough nature of the jump jockey's life wouldn't let him; but he would never have allowed himself anyway.

Fitzgerald may be uncomplicatedly friendly and articulate, but he is also generally recognised as one of the brightest members of the jockeys' room.

Grand National or not, delusions of undue grandeur were never on, and won't be even if he wins it again. Standing only yards from where he was led in to the most famous winners' enclosure of all on Rough Quest, Fitzgerald turns to the slightly faded glory of the Aintree weighroom and says: "There isn't a jockey in there who won't tell you winning the National isn't their ultimate goal, but even if you do win it, somebody else will be in the spotlight soon after. It'll be either the Derby, the FA Cup or the All-Ireland that people are interested in.

"On a day-to-day basis, winning the Grand National means no difference to a jockey's life. It's great to have on your CV, but we still lead a very tunnelled existence.

"It's six days a week of going up and down the country, with Saturday night the only night when we can have a few drinks and a decent supper.

Success has its price, and the toll on Fitzgerald for being a regular in the list of top 10 riders in Britain is usually a growling, ravenous belly. At 5ft 10in, he reckons his natural weight is 12st, which means grinding sessions in the sauna are an unwelcome routine.

When injury comes along the struggle intensifies through inactivity, and this season has been fraught with injury. By losing six weeks though the likes of concussion and ankle and hand injuries, Fitzgerald conservatively estimates he has missed out on 20 winners.

Yet the fulfilment of another Grand National victory would wipe out a season's frustration and create another benchmark in an already distinguished career.

On Thursday, the pull of the old track with the comfortinly familiar landmarks such as Becher's and the Canal Turn was still there. Comforting in word only however. Nostalgia is more difficult when you've just completed a hair-raising circuit to finish last on Golden Spinner in the John Hughes Trophy, Fitzgerald's first meeting with the fences since last year.

"Jesus, I'd forgotten how big they are," he says after finishing the day in one piece. The exclamation is heartfelt and a reminder that most who have dismissed the modified fences as having neutered the Grand National have said so from the comfort of the grandstand.

"Believe me, they're still big," Fitzgerald says with the nakedly practical, blue/back protector he wears under his silks now visible and emphasising the precariousness of his job.

"Jumping Becher's is like jumping off a skyscraper, but that's what makes the National unique. Horses don't experience the fences day to day, so it comes as a shock to them. If they get it wrong, you end up on your backside."

Go Ballistic certainly has never seen them, but the eight-year-old, trained by Carlow-born John O'Shea, has matured this season into a high-class performer and now looks well handicapped on the back of his 50 to 1 fourth behind Mr Mulligan in the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

Inexperience is a worry, but as his jockey knows, experience has to start some time. Fitzgerald's only National ride before Rough Quest was in 1995, when Tinryland fell at the first, so he knows the highs and he knows how the course can kick.

"I always say if a horse can get over the first three fences, then you're half-way there. It's just the speed that can get you at the first, and the third is a very big ditch. If can get Go Ballistic to relax, jump and start using himself, I think he'll run a big race.

"He is inexperienced though, and I won't be taking on Beecher's on the inside where the drop is steepest. There's no point making it harder for him than it has to be. At a fence like the Canal Turn you can always see the guys who haven't ridden Aintree before think they can't go too wide and they always end up not going wide enough. Valentine's is not that difficult, but the Chair is.

"When I was a kid I always thought it had to be met on a long stride, but that's not true. I was talking to Richard Dunwoody about this. Richard makes it all look so easy so sometimes he can make it sound easy too. But he says If you see a stride, go for it.

If you don't, then don't. It really is all about common sense and pragmatism in the National," Fitzgerald says.

Which sounds strange, given that jumping 30 enormous fences on the back of a thoroughbred must be one of the least pragmatic, if thrilling, ways to spend an afternoon. For one jockey today, concentration will disintegrate into indescribable joy.

COOL he may be, but Fitzgerald knows how victory in this race can heat anybody up.

"That quote" proved that. "The most common question I'm asked about winning the National is how did it feel, and I just say that that clip of film shows exactly how I felt. I was as high as a kite. It was the ultimate high, I don't care what drug anybody might be taking. Jane was a bit miffed I guess about what I said, but she realised I was on that high. She knew what it meant to me."

The last jockey to win the Grand National two years running was Brian Fletcher in 1973 and 1974 on the legendary Red Rum.

Go Ballistic may not yet have the profile that that famous horse had, but the key word is yet. The Grand National can change everything in the 10 minutes it takes to run the race. Mick Fitzgerald knows that better than anyone.

"It would truly be fantastic to win it again, and if Go Ballistic can stand up, then he has as good a chance as any of them," he says.

That could yet turn out to be the most important quote of the 1997 Grand National.