Apparently, American Pharoah was more than ready for his close-up when Vogue came calling to his home-away-from-his-Southern-California-home at Churchill Downs in Kentucky recently for the cover of its August issue, out July 23.

The coverboy – who can always check the box labeled “plays well with others” – was a perfect gentleman outside trainer Bob Baffert’s barn as he was spritzed, festooned with a garland of red roses from Susan’s Florist and snapped by Alex Lockett. The only time he went off cue was to nibble the roses’ greens. (Don’t they feed those Vogue models?)

The curious colt even took time to examine Lockett’s camera. Too funny.

"Admiration, pure admiration of an amazing personality and feat," Vogue fashion director Tonne Goodman said of shooting American Pharoah. "Vogue is a magazine that is cultural as well as fashion, and we were honored to be able to do it."

Meanwhile, as any champ knows, with admiration comes snark and, of course, conspiracy theories.

Some wonder if the fix wasn’t in at Belmont for the Triple Crown. Yes, I’m sure it was. I’m sure it was just like “Eight Men Out.” (Or, in this case, “Eight Horses Out.”) I’m sure the Pharoah took Frosted and the other horseys behind the barn before the race and said, “Frosted, you’ll come in second. Keen Ice, you’re on no one’s radar so you’ll wind up third to make it look spontaneous. Mubtaahij, you’re the foreign guy. No American wants you to win, so you’ll be just out of the money. The rest of you, here’s the order of finish. If you all stick to the script, there’ll be a little something green in everyone’s feeding tub tonight, and I don’t mean alfalfa, if you get my drift.”

And Frosted probably said, “Look, guys, with the extra dough we can get ourselves a nice retirement condo in Boca, maybe even one of those fixer-upper haciendas near Papa Hemingway’s place in Cuba. I hear the real estate market’s really opening up down there. Oh, sure, we’ll have to race a little while longer like the Pharoah to make it look legit, but in another year, we’ll all be romping on Easy Street.”

As the Pharoah himself would probably observe: “People – too funny.”