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over a supplemental check for $50,000 to get him in. The sorrel colt actually paid for his own ticket since he won the Zia Futurity three months earlier.
Major Rime didn’t win the All American that year. His fan club was in place, but the colt finished third. He finished his track career with $279,000 and a 14(7)-2(1)-2(1) record and a 104 SI. He also contributed to Driggers’ continued education by teaching him how to recognize a good horse!
“I know some people think this is ridiculous, but horses really do talk to you if you just take the time to listen and watch,” DelRae chimed in. “I was a typical, horse-
crazy little girl and I never grew out of it. My grandfather was in the cavalry, stationed at Ft. Bliss, during the time of Poncho Villa. He filled my head with all kinds of stories and taught me so many things about horses.
“Robert and I had Thoroughbreds all along, but it’s just been the last few years that we’ve
Ben Ivey was no stranger to horses before hooking up with Robert and DelRae. “I loved horses as a kid and always wanted to have one of my own. I got into racing in the 1970s, after I bought several old mares from a little Mexican town just across the border.”
That’s another thing about horse folks. Ask them how they started in the business and the result will be enough stories to fill a book. One guy traded his watch for his first horse. Another one said he offered his two kids for a fleet-footed gelding, but there were no takers.
Ivey didn’t grow up alone. His mom was mother to a total of 14 biological kids, three girls and 11 boys.
“And there are 52 grandkids,” Ivey said with a laugh. “We loved it and, to this day, we’re still close.”
Ivey and wife Kathy have been married 50-years with three children and nine grandchildren. “I didn’t have cousins before we
“Zee James shows some of the building blocks we used,” DelRae said. “We bought Esters Little Klu, a 1968 TB mare, out of Oklahoma. She gave us Esters Bunny, a Quarter Horse, who produced On A Bunny. On A Bunny became the dam of the stakes- winning Zee James. It takes time to build.”
River Flash (Chicks Regard-Riverside Flash, First Moonflash) is another multiple stakes-winning partnership horse. This time, the breeding was done by Ivey and Driggers joined in for the ownership. The gray gelding has banked nearly $408,000 from 13 starts with five stakes victories. He’s doing his part to keep the smiles on the faces of his Driggers and Ivey connections.
“You gotta’ find a way to stay hooked in this business,” Driggers said. “It’s an on and on and on kind of situation.”
“And you honestly don’t need 50 mares to do it,” DelRae added. “After all these years, I’ll say we have, maybe, four blue hens. But
gotten into stakes quality. You never stop building and improving in this business. You’re always looking at the next cross, at the next filly you want to keep as your next broodmare. We are 100 percent appreciative of all the good things happening to us over the past few years, but we also realize it won’t last forever.”
DelRae brought a whole bunch of cousins into Driggers’ life when they combined their pedigrees. One of them is Ben Ivey, who is currently a partner with the Driggers on several outstanding horses.
One of them is Bella Dona (Atilla’s Storm-Charlotte’s Drone, B.G.’s Drone),
a three-year-old multiple stakes-winning Thoroughbred filly with $675,068. She’s one of the special ones, who spoke to DelRae from the moment she was born.
“She was always the first one people were attracted to when they came to the farm,” DelRae recalled. “I would just keep walking and saying ‘Oh, she’s not for sale.’ I knew that filly didn’t want to go anywhere. Simon Buechler trains our TBs, and he’s done a wonderful job with her. Wes Giles handles our Quarter Horses.”
Charlotte’s Drone, Bella Dona’s dam, has produced five foals. All have gone to the track, with four stakes winners. Bella Dona leads the pack, breaking her maiden in her first start at Turf Paradise where she won by 4 1/4-lengths. She repeated that winning margin in the Rio Grande Senorita Futurity at Ruidoso. She next won the New Mexico State Fair TB Futurity, the New Mexico Classic Cup Lassie Championship at Zia, winning 10 straight, including eight stakes and $675,068. The other three from Charlotte’s Drone are Tilla Cat ($369,369), No Pasa Nada ($357,759), Lariat ($165,608), and Que Pasa ($102,922).
were married,” Kathy said. “It’s been wonderful! I didn’t come from horses like everyone else, so I spend a lot of time listening and learning. The last few years have been exciting for all of us.”
It took a while for the Driggers and
the Iveys to get together and set up their partnerships, but the results were worth the wait. In addition to Bella Dona, they partner on the Driggers-bred Quarter filly Zee James (Jesse James Jr-On A Bunny, On A High).
choose carefully and keep building.”
“It’s about staying power,” Ivey said. “I
compare it to farming and growing crops. You plant and you wait.”
“Listen and learn all you can” Kathy advises.
And if you decide to throw a family reunion for 13 siblings and 52 grandkids, have it catered. There’s no way you have a bowl large enough to handle all the potato salad you’ll need.
Ben Ivey and Robert Driggers
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