Joe Pride is confident he's found the right race at Canterbury for last-start winner Gasquet to make a successful graduation to Saturday company.

Gasquet turned in a better-than-expected first-up performance to win by two lengths under lights at Canterbury earlier this month.

He'll aim for back-to-back wins in the Canterbury Park Handicap (1100m) and the frontrunner is unbeaten in his only two starts over the course.

"It looks an ideal sort of transitional race for him and you are always looking for that with horses going from midweeks to Saturday races," Pride said.

"You need the right race for them to make that transition and I think that's what this race is."

Gasquet is on the second line of betting but early favourite Sessions is an unlikely runner unless there are scratchings.

Three-year-old Sessions has barrier 14 and trainer Peter Snowden said he would wait until Saturday's scratching deadline before making a final decision.

Territory, which had barrier 12, has already been scratched.

"I'll see what scratchings there are in the morning but he's unlikely to run," Snowden said.

"Earlier in the week there was rain and there were nine scratchings from a race on Wednesday (at Rosehill) so you don't know. (But) I'm not going to run him from that barrier, especially at Canterbury."

Five-year-old Gasquet has won five of his 10 starts, including three midweek metropolitan victories, and defied a betting drift to post his first-up win.

"I expected him to run well first-up but I thought the run was above expectations," Pride said.

"He ran super and should be able to back that up. He's won second-up before and has a soft draw so he'll be hard to beat."