Coroner rules Irish racing figure Hugh Mulryan, 25, died accidentally in car blaze on first day of new job

Hugh Mulryan, a 25-year-old bloodstock and racing figure from County Galway, was found dead in his burned-out Volkswagen Passat at a layby off Marishes Lane, near Malton, North Yorkshire, at around 4am on June 16, 2025 — the very morning he was due to start work as assistant trainer to Adrian Keatley. Coroner Jonathan Leach returned a verdict of accidental death; the cause was smoke inhalation, after fire investigators concluded a cigarette had most likely set alight fabric or foam in the footwell.

Mulryan had moved to Ryedale only two days before his death and spent that evening with Keatley at the Spotted Cow pub discussing the new role.

Keatley told the inquest that Mulryan had cigarettes on him and had consumed four or five pints of Guinness but 'did not appear drunk at all'; toxicology placed his alcohol level 'just over' the legal driving limit.

Witnesses reported seeing a dark-coloured Passat on Irish plates travelling the wrong way around a roundabout near the A169 shortly before the fire; Mulryan had previously worked with trainers Denis Hogan and Sir Mark Prescott and at Baroda Stud in County Kildare.