The Everest winner was found to have bled after trackwork.

Last year's The Everest (1200m) winner Classique Legend (Not A Single Doubt) will return from Hong Kong to Les Bridge's stable after he was found to have bled from the left nostril after a routine piece of trackwork at Sha Tin on Wednesday. 

Trainer Caspar Fownes confirmed the move after the Bon Ho-owned gelding was hit with a compulsory three-month ban, forcing him to miss Monday's Sprint Cup (Gr 2, 1200m) and the Chairman's Sprint Prize (Gr 1, 1200m) on April 25.

"He was absolutely flying. We got him to where we wanted to get him and then he comes back, he coughs a couple of times and there is a little trickle of blood and I have to call it unfortunately," Fownes told the South China Morning Post.

"It's very sad, but these things happen. He was ready to rock n' roll – he was only getting better and better.

"I called Bon Ho straight away, of course. I said, 'look this is what happened, it's very unfortunate, it's a sad day for us'.

"We were getting him where we wanted to get him and Zac [Purton] was very happy with him, but the right thing to do is to send him back to Australia because he's just finding it hard in this environment to really cope. We've done everything we can.

"The horse is intact, he's going to be fine. He'll go back to Australia and they'll give him back to Mr Bridge and, god willing, they can win the Everest again.

"I think that's the right way to go. 'Bon' was very good, obviously saddened by what's happened but he's taken the news as well as you can take it.

"We'll basically just let him relax and chill out and then the next flight we can get him on is at the end of May. So we'll get him on that and it will give Mr Bridge enough time to prepare him for the big race."