Oisin Murphy's participation in South Africa's richest race an example of a country returning to the world stage

James Crawford has a tattoo that starts at his wrist and flows up the length of his right arm to his shoulder. The top half of it was completed in the final days of a recent holiday to Bali.

“It took seven and a half hours,” the trainer said. “They gave me numbing cream which lasted for four and a half hours but then when that wears off, all the pain comes at once.”

How much you get tattooed depends on how much pain you can stand, Crawford added, words that could act as a metaphor for those who have been involved in South African racing in recent years.