Fresh from a feature race victory with Malavio, trainer Steve Englebrecht is buoyant about the prospects of progressive stayer Retort Courteous at Canterbury.

Malavio stamped himself as a leading Villiers Stakes contender with his Festival Stakes win at Rosehill on Saturday, but Englebrecht revealed the performance didn't come without incident.

"He jarred up a little bit but he seems OK," Englebrecht said, confident the promising galloper would be fine for the Group Two Villiers Stakes on December 22.

"He's eaten up and is pretty full of himself. We'll just monitor him and just make sure he's OK, but he should be fine."

While Malavio aims at a feature stakes double this month, Englebrecht will also use the summer as an opportunity for Retort Courteous to try to power through his grades.

A winner of his past two starts on provincial tracks, Retort Courteous steps up to city grade in Wednesday's Vili's Pies Handicap (1900m).

"I'm pretty confident he'll be very hard to beat tomorrow," Englebrecht said.

"He has always shown a fair bit of ability. I think the penny has dropped and he's just starting to get his act together."

A maiden win over 1850m at Newcastle was followed up by an easy three-length success at Kembla Grange over 2000m on December 2.

While Englebrecht admitted the wins were in "ordinary company" he was pleased with the manner in which the stayer accounted for his opposition.

"You can only beat what is in front of you and he's done that well," he said.

And he doesn't expect a slight drop back in distance to be any worry for the son of Zabeel at Canterbury.

"He's pretty versatile and I think it looks a nice race for him," Englebrecht said.

Englebrecht believes the stayer can reach stakes class in time but won't be rushing to step him up into that grade too quickly, ruling out the prospect of going to the Summer Cup on Boxing Day.

"It's a little bit too early for him for that," he said.

"He's eligible for a lot weaker grade at the moment and with the good prizemoney on offer, we'll look to take him through his grades," he said.