NATURAL Look has only been out of the money twice in 10 starts for trainer Declan Queally, and owner David Needham is hoping the mare can give him another great day out at Tramore this Sunday.

David is based in Norfolk, near Fakenham Racecourse, and travels to Ireland for all of Natural Look’s races. His wife Jennifer is also a keen racegoer and they sometimes bring grandson Michael with them. So, how did they end up so deeply involved in Irish racing?

“I’ve been involved with horses all my life, in some way, but it was through greyhounds that I first came to Ireland,” explains David. “I was very lucky to meet Pat and Hazel Crowley, who pre-train at Sleady Castle, Ballinamult, Co Waterford.

“That was about 10-12 years ago and we have formed a very good relationship. They find and pre-train the horses for me. Pat runs them in point-to-points and then they move on to the Queallys for the racecourse.”

Owenacurra Lass has been David’s best racehorse to-date. She won four times between 2018 and 2021, and is now at stud. One of her wins, a Wexford bumper - earned David a €5,000 Weatherbys ITBA NH Bonus but he was not expecting to get another €5,000 when Natural Look won a handicap hurdle at Cork last month.

Scheme extended

However, in 2018 the scheme was extended to cover a number of mares’ only handicap hurdles who had not won a maiden hurdle. Natural Look won an ‘ordinary’ handicap hurdle at Gowran Park last October, which was not a Bonus Scheme race, and David assumed his mare was now ineligible for a hurdle race payout.

So, when she won at Cork a month ago, David had no idea there was another €5,000 in the kitty.

David said: “The first I knew of it was when Declan Queally sent me a screenshot of a tweet from the ITBA, congratulating connections on winning the bonus. It was a lovely surprise and I have to thank Pat and Hazel for nominating her to the scheme.”

He added that you can be certain the bonus will be reinvested in another racehorse, probably a mare. “I have had geldings but mostly it seems to be mares. It was the same with greyhounds and I can’t explain why. They are good value.”

Natural Look is eligible for another €5,000 bonus if she wins at Tramore as it is a beginners’ chase. Mares nominated to the scheme – which costs just €200 – can win a maximum of three bonuses, covering a bumper, hurdle and chase.

David says Tramore is one of his favourite tracks in Ireland and he will probably visit the Queallys as well this weekend. “They are hardest-working people I’ve ever met in racing and such a nice family. Declan snr and jnr, and Bernie, always make us feel very welcome.”

As you can probably guess, David likes the smaller tracks and is a proper National Hunt racing man. “I’m only an hour from Newmarket but I have never been racing there. Mind you, I’ve just received an invitation to go there in October so I might go along.”

Before signing off, David offered one suggestion on how Irish racing could be improved. He said: “There should be more jumps races for trainers who have not had 10 or 15 winners in the past year. It would be nice to see success spread around a bit more.”

A popular idea, though the hard-working Queallys – fresh from their Galway Festival win with My Design - are probably too successful to qualify for a race like that.