He's been up on the Gold Coast since Wednesday, preparing Concrete for the Magic Millions Rising Stars meet on Saturday.

Originally, Cleary was going to run the four-year-old gelding on the big Magic Millions meet next weekend, but he'll now go for a spell because the fields were looking a bit too strong.

That's how it proved for him in the race for three and four-year-olds (1300 metres) on Saturday, finishing 10-lengths second last to Phobetor.

Cleary has recently opened stables at Moruya, where Canberra trainer Matthew Dale also has a secondary base.

As his business has boomed Cleary felt the south coast was the perfect place to spread his wings.

He got a call from Moruya trainer Shaun Coady, who told him they needed to leave.

The fires forced him to evacuate his six horses, when Dale also trucked out 14 of his own.

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He couldn't get out his remaining five, who were agisted on a property nearby - but he was confident they would be fine.

"I got six out the other night. Matty Dale got the wheels in motion," Cleary said.

"We sent three trucks down. I think Matty brought 14 home and I've got six. I've still got five there and they're obviously stuck there until further notice.

"That's all I could [get out] and they got out on the 11^th hour. The horses got home about 1.20am.

"We got six home, that's the main thing. In the lap of the gods now, see what happens, but there's still five there.

"The next 24 hours is going to be vital ... you sort of feel a bit helpless.

"I've been up here since Wednesday and that's when all the shit's hit the fan.

"You do feel helpless - I'm here with one horse and they're down there with 30 for me."

Canberra trainer Paul Jones, part of Joseph Jones Racing, also evacuated "six or seven" of their horses from their Sapphire Coast stables on Friday.

He then travelled to Sydney with Mercurial Lad running in the benchmark 78 handicap (1550m) at Kensington on Saturday.

Jones thought the track would be too hard for the six-year-old gelding, but the $51 longshot produced a brilliant run after a tough week for the stable - they had relatives die in the fires at Cobargo.

"We got six or seven horses out of there," he said.

"The [Sapphire] track itself is a bit of a refuge centre for horses in the area and they've got a bit of a plan.

"You look at the forecast for the fire predictions today and it's a little bit outside their zones.

"There are people staying in their campers at the track and also staying in at the race club, using their facilities there.

"Two of our staff are staying there. They've got sprinklers and soaker hoses over the top of the shed, and the gutters are full of water.

"We were as prepared as we could be."