Page 57 - Speedhorse August 2018

“I was such a greenhorn in the business that I didn't realize what winning a stakes meant so it was just, 'I won a race.' But, it did
make it seem like racing could be fun.”
A FEW FIRSTS
It was that same year that Andreini joined the ranks of stakes-winning owners when he won the 1968 Long Beach Stakes. “Winning Streak was a pretty filly,” he says. “I was such a greenhorn in the business that I didn’t realize what winning a stakes meant, so it was just, ‘I won a race.’ But, it did make it seem like racing could be fun.”
Along the way, Andreini met Judd Morse. “We’ve had a lot of great times together,” he says. “We started a ranch called Future Farms and had a lot of great horses together.” He also met the cowboy artist Jimmy Stuckenberg, creator of the bronze for the Sam Thompson Memorial Foundation.
Andreini describes Truly Truckle TB as the trio’s first good stud horse. “In those days, we got $1,000 for a stud fee and that was a big deal because most of the horses’ fees were $300–$400. We bred over 120 mares to him the first year, and we did the same the next year and raised the price to $1,500.”
Andreini was also in the first syndicate of owners for First Down Dash. “I loved that horse,” he says. “He was the most regal animal I’ve ever seen in my life and I was proud to be an owner. You couldn’t find a better horse, a faster horse or a better sire in those days.”
Truly Truckle (left) was
the first good stud horse
for Andreini, who stood
the Thoroughbred stallion with Judd Morse and Jim Stuckenberg. Truly Truckle is the sire of World Champion Truckle Feature.
d
Mateo, California, in 1951. The business has
grown to include more than a dozen locations in California, Oklahoma, Texas and North Carolina, and employs more than 200 insurance professionals.
In 1968, fate stepped in when his best insurance customer asked him if he’d like to
go on the Rancheros Visitadores, a 60-mile horseback ride from Santa Barbara, California, that about 1,000 people from around the world attend each year. “I didn’t want to tell him I didn’t know how to ride a horse,” Andreini says. “I told him I’d love to come.”
He proceeded to teach himself how to ride by renting a horse from Golden Gate State Park in San Francisco. “The horses there were so barn sour, they’d run back to the barn when you got them 500 yards from the place!” he says.
Finally, one of his ranch accounts offered him a horse to take on the ride. “I went down there and rode him on the ranch and he was dead broke,” Andreini says. “I didn’t think I’d get in any trouble. But he was ranch broke — he was never in any place where a bunch of drunks were beating on drums and all. We had a lot of fun, and that got me hooked in the horse business!”
Andreini was a part of the first syndicate of owners for First Down Dash (above).
After founding and establishing Andreini and Company — one of the top 50 independently owned insurance brokerage firms in the United States, where he played an active role as founder - CEO and chairman of the board - John built JL Ranch.
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SPEEDHORSE, August 2018 55