WHERE HORSEPLAY LIVED WHEN COVID-19 FIRST HIT PERTH

Perth Racing at Home, a live streaming website I built from scratch in a couple of days that cost less than $250, was where horseplay lived when the coronavirus pandemic first restricted public access to Ascot and Belmont Park meetings.

I have been a web nerd for 20 years. I taught myself to hand code websites around the time cascading style sheets, which enable the separation of presentation and content, became the hottest things on the world wide web. Movable Type was the first content management system I installed and used, but WordPress came along and blew out of the water all of its competitors due to its ease of installation and use. When I set about building Perth Racing at Home, WordPress was always going to be the website’s content management system because it takes just a few minutes to set up on a server, its directory of plugins make it easy to add lots of really cool content with minimal programming knowledge and it is free. If you are sufficiently tech savvy to send an email with multiple attachments to multiple recipients, you are sufficiently tech savvy to build a wonderful website these days without forking out big bucks to a developer.

With WordPress doing the heavy lifting and the likes of Handbrake, OBS Studio and Vimeo performing supporting roles, Perth Racing at Home streamed the on-course broadcast mix of markets, previews, races, interviews and replays to the internet-enabled devices of the club’s financial members, both live and on demand. Throughout every meeting at Ascot and Belmont Park over a three-month period, hundreds of Perth Racing members logged in to watch all the action. And Perth Racing at Home promoted the TABtouch, PR TipStar, Gourmet Takeaway and Liquor Takeaway services as well.

I would love you to visit my blog every day for its daily serve of fresh content. But I would love you more if you hired me. I am well-bred, by Racing Post out of WA Turf Club. I am well-rounded, a winner over many courses and distances. And I am well-placed, available to add value to your existing team. Do the form on a racing, wagering and communications thoroughbred at markworwood.com.