Dominick Bellizzi

Who was Dominick Bellizzi?

Dominick Bellizzi was an American jockey who died at age twenty-two as a result of a horse racing accident.

An up-and-coming young jockey in Thoroughbred racing, during 1933 Dominick Bellizzi rode to victory in the Futurity at Chicago's Arlington Park for Charles T. Fisher's Dixiana Farm. Competing on the New York circuit, he won the Adirondack Stakes and for the prominent Brookmeade Stable, owned by heiress Isabel Dodge Sloane, he captured both the Toboggan Handicap and the Whitney Handicap.

In 1934, Dominick Bellizzi rode Brookmeade's colt High Quest to victory in the Wood Memorial Stakes, an important prep race for the Kentucky Derby. However, trainer Robert A. Smith opted to run the stable's Florida Derby winner Time Clock in the Derby and under Bellizzi, finished seventh.

A week after the Kentucky Derby, Dominick Bellizzi was back in New York where he rode Brookmeade's Psychic Bid in the Youthful Stakes at Jamaica Racetrack. As the field turned for home, the promising but still immature two-year-old colt veered wide and when Bellizzi attempted to guide him back in, the bit slipped in the horse's mouth. The motion caused the young jockey to lose his balance and he was thrown from his mount into the path of several onrushing horses. Severely injured, Bellizzi was rushed to hospital where he died a few days later.