[2] African Story's dam, Blixen, won one minor race at the Curragh Racecourse in 2000,[3] and was a great-granddaughter of the broodmare Mesopatamia, making her a distant relative of Halling and Mastery.

In the Prix de la Porte Maillot over 1400 metres at Longchamp in July he produced a strong finish but failed by a head to catch Moonlight Cloud.

[7] Three weeks later on Dubai World Cup night, he started the 5/6 favourite for the Group 2 Godolphin Mile and won by four lengths from the South-African challenger Viscount Nelson.

[9] On his final appearance as a five-year-old, African Story was sent to Hong Kong in May to contest the Champions Mile at Sha Tin Racecourse, finishing sixth of the ten runners behind Xtension.

Ridden by Silvestre de Sousa he started at odds of 12/1 in a field of sixteen which included Ruler of the World from Ireland, Military Attack and Akeed Mofeed from Hong Kong, and the multiple American Grade I winner Ron The Greek as well as runners from Britain, Japan and South Africa.

Ridden by James Doyle, he tracked the leaders before moving to the front inside the final furlong and holding off the late challenge of Prince Bishop to win by a neck.

On his final racecourse appearance the gelding attempted to repeat his 2014 success in the Dubai World Cup but finished sixth of the nine runners behind Prince Bishop.

Prince Bishop was retired on the same day and Saeed bin Suroor paid tribute to the pair saying "They were very tough and reliable racehorses... they could adapt quickly to their environment no matter where in the world they were taken to race.