Well I manned up and decided to ride one of my horses in the Grand National.
Surprisingly a great buzz!
Quite exciting jumping all those famous fences!
I got as far as the water jump and I hit the turf

I can't wait to do it again!

You will find the Water Jump the hardest fence to jump Doug you got to get it right lol you think the Chair or Beeches would be harder.

Gray

Good - so I don't feel so bad after all

Do you need to get closer into it before you jump?

I have got round the course ok using both styles of riding (advanced/normal) and after the first couple of failures have not had any problems.
The most critical factor I found was making sure the horse has really good jump stats. If the bars are average or worse you can end on the deck no matter what you do at some point in the race.

I didn't realise there is advanced and normal riding styles.
Is the advanced in playing as jockey only?

The advanced moden is available on the options screen for any normal owner/trainer game.
Strangely, or maybe more reallistically, there is no jump button on the advanced mode. The horse jumps automatically, although occationally a warning will flash that you either have to push on into the jump or rein back. In this mode it is essential your horse has good jumps stats.