Over the past several years a vast amount of technology and information has emerged that has served as a benefit to horseplayers. In this week's Post Time, we'll discuss ways to use this technology to your advantage when playing the ponies. We'll also review how social media, particularly Twitter, can provide essential real-time information to help your wagering efforts.

The advance in the horse racing game that made wagering more efficient and effective was the advance deposit wagering (ADW) account. The typical ADW account offers live simulcasting of the tracks they offer for wagering. Some even provide their television feeds in high definition. One of the better features is that they provide track odds, betting pools and pay information, all of which can be vital when making multi-race exotic wagers. For example, what the daily double will pay can give one a clue as to which horses are taking money in the first two legs of a Pick Three, Four or Six wager.

When the iPad was introduced this year, several applications were made available to aid the horseplayer. Most ADW accounts allow you to obtain certain past performances for free as long as you wager on the track data you downloaded. Where the iPad comes into play is how one obtains the past performances and stores them for handicapping. Two programs that have become a staple for obtaining, utilizing and manipulating the past performances, stand out for me.

The first necessary application is GoodReader, which provides a platform for downloading the file from the Web. Once listed as a file in GoodReader, the past performance file can be opened in Noterize and used for handicapping. Using your finger, you can highlight significant items in different colors, you can write on the past performances using a pen feature and you can even share the information via e-mail, Facebook or Twitter.

Two other applications that should be in every horseplayer's iPad are the iTote wagering calculator and the Equibase Racing Yearbook. The iTote calculator helps you calculate wager totals based on your base bet, your bet type and the horses used in each spot of an exacta, trifecta or superfecta. If you didn't score well on your Math SAT, this application is for you. The Equibase Racing Yearbook is a library of the past year's stakes races sorted alphabetically. The Yearbook includes the first three finishers with payouts and a video replay of the race. This comes in handy when handicapping horses and watching past performances for clues that can loom large in future races.

The social networking phenomenon Twitter has a significant presence in the sport of horse racing. You can find each of the major tracks' main handicappers online touting selections before each race. If you wager on the NYRA tracks, Andy Serling (@andyserling) is a very good handicapper to follow. Several tracks provide an insider within the paddock who tweets reports of which horses look the best while parading before the race. My favorite paddock tweeter is Joe Riddell (@paddockreport), who is a fixture in the Keeneland and Churchill Downs paddocks.

Another potential handicapping nugget is available when a horse is taking a lot of the show pool money, known as bridge jumping. Several twitter accounts provide information when this situation is developing. Should the horse that is being wagered on heavily to show happen to miss the board and not finish in the top three, huge payouts can result. In the Long Island Handicap run at Aqueduct last month, this situation was tweeted out and the favorite, Changing Skies, came in fourth. The $2 show payouts were $17.80, $15.20 and $49.20, respectively. Those who were paying attention took advantage of the information and made a big score.

Another recent example of how Twitter helped happened on Breeders' Cup weekend. During the post parade of the Ladies' Classic, it became apparent to the ESPN commentators that something was amiss with Life at Ten. Almost immediately a number of tweets urged horseplayers to get off of Life at Ten. I quickly canceled all of my wagers on her in my ADW account. Sure enough she was listless after the gate break and didn't even finish the race. If I hadn't been paying attention to my feed during the race I might have overlooked her sluggishness and lost badly.

Twitter is also a place where you can interact with turf writers from the major trade magazines, newspapers and aggregate sites. Beginning handicappers can locate accounts that have websites that teach beginners how to handicap, wager and develop sound betting strategies. It has been invaluable to meet other horseplayers with a similar love for the game with a willingness to share information.

There has been a lot of technology available to horseplayers. Not jumping on horse racing's information superhighway can cost you money.

Gene Kershner is a Buffalo-based turf writer and handicapper who blogs at equispace.blogspot.com. He handicaps the race of the week on Friday at the Sports, Ink blog at www.buffalonews.com and can be found on Twitter (@EquiSpace).