I very much doubt he would run at Royal Ascot as there is really only the Hardwicke Stakes as a viable race for him as he wouldn’t stay the Gold Cup trip in his horsebox.
There are so many options on the flat and we all know how they like to water the ground and if we are talking early spring targets (with the amount of rain we have had) true good to firm is unlikely, there is also the fact that races in the Autumn are more liable to be run on easier going and there is also races in Germany/France where ground also tends to be much softer.
Over hurdles he has just the Champion Hurdle (which he has already won) as the main target with stop at Newcastle and Kempton along the way.
Regards the BHA, they clearly have no real authority to step in to stop him from running over hurdles as this would open the proverbial can of worms over do they stop every horse with multiple falls over several races (what would be the guidelines, would a horse being brought down count to the number of falls etc) and where do you draw the line……what about horses that have pulled up multiple times over several races (Mr Vango for instance has pulled up in 2 of his last 3 races and 3 times in his last 7 races)…should he be banned from running????
Horses that cause problems and/or refuse to be loaded into starting stalls thus requiring a stalls test is one thing but they aren’t going to touch banning horses for too many falls. El Fabiolo fell 3 times over fences in 4 starts, common sense told connections to stop chasing (even though he is clearly talented enough to win a QMCC) with the obvious next step being going back over hurdles which he did and where he won again……..in CH case, the move to flat racing is the common sense move but at the end of the day connections have the right to run him wherever they choose and the BHA can’t just intervene based on the fact that they think it isn’t the right thing to do.