Horse whisperer: Francesa skims Crown talk after bad Belmont pick

If Mike Francesa seriously is considering packing it in, this would be the time. There’s no one left to fool. And I suspect he’s sick of himself, too.

Though he has long portrayed himself a handson, moneydown knowitall on thoroughbred racing, he exposed himself as a horse’s sass before the Preakness when he demanded — screamed, over and over — that American Pharoah’s trainer, Bob

Baffert, be fired if Dortmund, also trained by Baffert but for a different owner, was entered.

Well, Dortmund ran, American Pharoah won the Preakness, then the Belmont.

Tuesday, Francesa’s phone guest for nearly 25 minutes was Baffert. That “Fire Baffert!” thing? “Let’s Be Honest” never even brought it up.

He did, however, find time to tell Baffert (and eavesdropping peons) that he was at the Belmont, “sitting in my seat, where it has always been — right on the finish line.” What we never could say in public, even if it were true, as a matter of both minimal modesty and to avoid being recognized as a pompous jerk, just naturally flows from Francesa.

And just because his nodoubt touts of Triple Crown favorites have annually finished out of the money — followed by a WFAN horse named Monday Silence — this past Monday Francesa had the opportunity to marvel at the biggest horseracing story in his radio career, the first Triple Crown winner in 37 years.

But Francesa buried the story, spoke of it almost somberly, as a tidbit from a weekend he determined was predominated by anticipation of the NBA Draft and baseball results.

Of course, he did. Francesa, in a rare tout against a heavy favorite, didn’t want to give anyone the opportunity to be reminded that he gave American Pharoah no shot, or that his expert pick, Materiality, finished dead last.

And so Francesa, self-acclaimed horseracing expert who watched the Belmont from his usual seat/throne at the finish line, Monday recapped the weekend, shorting its biggest story. Now, had he picked the winner ...