The Lawson family hopes Ghost Fleet can finally put to rest a heart-wrenching disappointment at the Queen’s Plate 26 years ago. (Michael Burns)

Jim Lawson never will erase from his mind the lesson his father taught him, and people around Woodbine certainly will never forget the class Mel Lawson exhibited after his heart-wrenching disappointment at the 1984 Queen's Plate.

That's why Ghost Fleet is the sentimental favourite for the 151st Queen's Plate on Sunday. The elder Lawson's Jim Dandy Stable (named after his three children Jim, Dana and David) owns the bay colt, 20-to-1 in the morning line.

Back in 1984, Jim Lawson was a young lawyer who wanted justice. He watched the family-owned Let's Go Blue finish second to Key to the Moon after a controversial bumping incident that cost the Lawson's the coveted Queen's Plate.

Let's Go Blue was the heavy 3-to-5 favourite. But Key to the Moon was part of an entry that included third-place finisher Ten Pots Gold. The third-place finisher was the race's rabbit and tried to pin Let's Go Blue to the rail most of the race.

But late in the final 1/8th of a mile, Key to the Moon moved into position beside Let's Go Blue, and that's when Lawson's horse was bumped by Key to the Moon and jockey Robin Platts.

There was a protest filed by Let's Go Blue's jockey Larry Attard and Platts countered with one of his own, claiming that the second-place finisher bumped his horse coming out the turn into the backstretch.

"The head-on replay clearly showed the other horse bumped him," said Jim, now on the Woodbine board of directors as well as the chairman of the Jockey Club of Canada.

"But the stewards disallowed the claim. They said they couldn't tell if the bumping was before or after the finish line. But we knew it was before."

Bad break

The next day Jim visited his father at his lumberyard in Burlington, Ont.

"I was a young lawyer full of vinegar and I wanted to appeal it," the son said. "Everybody wanted to appeal it, the trainer, Larry. I told him, 'Dad, we have to appeal it.' He looked at me and said 'I've been [in] sports all my life and I've learned to live with the referee's decision, and that's it, we're not appealing it.' It was one of those life lessons you learn.

"But because of what happened and the way Dad handled it, there are a lot of people around here that remember that and are cheering for him."

Next month, Mel Lawson will be inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame. It's an honour that has been worth the wait for the popular sportsman. He first made a name for himself as the youngest quarterback to win the Grey Cup, when he backed up the great Joe Krol on the 1943 Hamilton Wildcats. He also was adept on the baseball diamond and the hockey rink. He played for the Toronto Marlboros and was coached by Harold Ballard.

When Mel began working in the family lumber business, a lumber bunk crushed his right arm. But that didn't stem his athletic endeavours. Instead, he learned to use his left arm.

"I remember when he coached a high-level fast-pitch team later," Jim recalled. "He would pitch batting practice with both his right and left arm. He could throw curves, rises and drop balls equally with his left."

Mel's foray into the thoroughbred world began at the old and now demolished Hamilton Jockey Club on Barton St. His stable has won close to 50 stake races, which is quite an accomplishment for an outfit that usually has only two to three horses a year competing.

Besides Let's Go Blue, other notable Lawson-owned horses include Eternal Search, Ginger Gold and Jiggs Coz, another favourite that didn't win the Queen's Plate. It was injured and finished third to Mike Fox in 2007.

What would a Plate victory mean to the elder Lawson.

"It would be special," he chuckled as he soaked in the sun on Thursday at Woodbine alongside his wife Barbara.