Dominick Bellizzi [SEP] manner of death
Dominick Bellizzi
Dominick Bellizzi (ca. 1912 – 17 May 1934) was an American jockey who died at age 21 as a result of a horse racing accident. He was known as "The Duke."
Bellizzi was born in New York to Albanian immigrants Samuel and Teresa Bellizzi. 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