In 2011, Davey, Jackson, Pitkethly and Szab\'o defined the \emph{relational degree} of an algebra as the smallest $d \in \mathbb{N}_0$ such that the clone of term functions is determined by its at most $d$-ary invariant relations (when such a $d$ exists). We will state a preservation property that yields the following consequence: "Let $\mathbf{A}$ be a finite algebra of finite type with edge term that generates a residually small variety. Then there is a $k \in \mathbb{N}$ such that every algebra in this variety is of relational degree at most $k$." We will also investigate countably infinite algebras and obtain that a clone with quasigroup operations on a countable set is either locally closed, or its local closure is uncountable.