In 1978 he and wife Dorothy paid $25,000 sight unseen for a then three-year-old gelding named John Henry.
[1] The temperamental horse had previously had three different owners, none of whom had achieved any success with him on the racetrack.
He won seven Eclipse Awards including two for American Horse of the Year, retired with career earnings of $6,591,860, and was inducted in the U.S.
That same year, Dotsam Stable was voted the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Owner.
Sam Rubin died in 2006 in Palm Beach, Florida, ten days short of his ninety-second birthday.