An up-and-coming young jockey in Thoroughbred racing, during 1933 Bellizzi rode to victory in the Futurity at Chicago's Arlington Park for Charles T. Fisher's Dixiana Farm.
In 1934, Bellizzi rode Brookmeade's colt High Quest to victory in the Wood Memorial Stakes, an important prep race for the Kentucky Derby.
A week after the Kentucky Derby, Bellizzi was back in New York where he rode Brookmeade's Psychic Bid in the Youthful Stakes at Jamaica Race Course.
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.