WHEN Upper Orara stables owner, Chris Fenech owner of HWH Stables, got a random email from Toni Higginbotham Casting agency asking if he was interested in being in a TV commercial, he nearly clicked ‘delete’ thinking it was spam.

But he didn’t.

He replied, asking for more info.

He learned that the casting agency was building a team for an advert that was horse-ranch related, so Chris naturally thought they were looking for horse riders.

He was asked to supply a short video of himself.

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They liked it and booked Chris in for wardrobe in Sydney.

It was here he heard there were no horses involved, instead he would be breaking in…the new VW Amarok Walkinshaw.

What’s a Walkinshaw you might ask?

Walkinshaw Performance is a global leader in the design, engineering and development of high-performance cars working with established vehicle brands, in this case VW.

The idea, simply put, is to ‘bring to life’ an established hero car with supreme performance and style.

“The storyline – Walkinshaw Station ‘built for the road’ – sees horsemen rounding up the wild ‘brumbies’, seen in the ad as the Amarok Ute, being broken in and then exuberantly released as the thoroughbred GT-spec Amarok W580,” Chris told News Of The Area.

“It was fun, I was amongst six actors who were amused I got the job through an email,” said Chris.

“Maybe they wanted credibility from the industry, and I guess there were snippets of advice I could give; otherwise they were pretty true to their storyboard.

“I honestly thought I was going to be an extra riding a horse in the background, not this experience.

“I didn’t get to drive the vehicle but from the passenger seat I fell in love with it.

“Walkinshaw has smashed the Amarok out of the park – all the specs make it a leader in its class,” said Chris.

By Andrea FERRARI