In 2008, the Texas Heritage Award was given to Allen Moehrig.

Texas natives Allen and Jeanette Moehrig have been making American Quarter Horse history for decades.

Owners of a gasoline station when they acquired their first horse some 40 years ago, the Moehrigs raised what is arguably the best racing American Quarter Horse ever in Special Effort-the Texas-bred horse who in 1981 became the only horse to ever win the fabled Ruidoso Triple Crown as a two-year-old. World Champion and $1.2 million earner Special Effort-himself a member of the Texas Horse Racing Hall of Fame-is still the only two-year-old Triple Crown winner some 27 years later.

But Allen and Jeanette Moehrig are so much more than breeders of Special Effort. Working side by side on the Texas race tracks and on their Seguin breeding farm, the Moehrigs raised many stakes winners and track record setters. They bred and raised the Champion Eyesa Special, an earner of $1.4 million, who won the 2000 All American Futurity on Labor Day and then came home to Lone Star Park to win the $911,000 Texas Classic Futurity.

While operating with a small budget, just a handful of broodmares and often using stallions at their own farm, the Moehrigs (sometimes in partnership) also bred and raised many stakes winners, including 5-time futurity winner Jody O Toole (sire of winners of $7 million who at 23 years old this year has a horse who won a $500,000 race); leading sire Dashin Is Easy, a two-time Champion and $775,000 earner who is the only stallion to win a Grade I race at 2, 3 and 4; and many more major earners.

Allen and Jeanette Moehrig are true Texas racing legends.

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