'Uncle Lou' Villasenor, longtime Santa Anita employee, dies at 58

Lou Villasenor, a popular member of Santa Anita's television department for more than 30 years, died on Thursday morning from an apparent heart attack, leaving a void and many broken hearts at the track where he first began working as a marketing aide in the early 1980s while in high school.

Villasenor, 58, eventually went to work at Santa Anita full time and worked as a camera operator and oversaw the graphics department at the track, and then was promoted to technical director in 1993 after Santa Anita built its in-house television studio. He led the technical team at Santa Anita for 20 years. In recent years he was the simulcast supervisor.

Villasenor – nicknamed "Uncle Lou" – was a passionate sports fan who attended many games of the Los Angeles Kings, and reveled in their two Stanley Cups. He also loved to travel and was part of a large group of racetrack media members who made an annual spring training trip to Arizona.