If theres no excitation then there will be no regen, that said smaller motors can have slightly magnetised rotors so there may be a small amount.
Most drives have the facility for a braking transistor, to abosrb the energy produced by regen into a resistor, I'dve thought you'd be able to set up your drive so its on all the time, and gets a speed reference voltage signal from the control, then the drive itself can decide whether to brake or accell.
The smaller motor will probably to some extent be restricted by the larger one, as if you want to accelerate the drive will probably go into current limit caused by the bigger motor, forcing the smaller motor to go a similar (but not exact) speed.