This episode adapts the urban legend which tells Catherine the Great died when she was having sex with a horse. Therefore, she's portrayed as being sexually interested in her horse. Interestingly, Danielle Cormack, the actress who plays the empress of Russia, also plays the role of Ephiny in Xena: Warrior Princess (1995). Ephiny is an Amazon who was married to a centaur (a mythical creature, both human, both horse).
Two of the horses in the race scenes are named ''Mister Ed'' and ''Trigger'', Roy Rodger's famous horse.
Catherine the Great died of a stroke in 1796 at the age of 67. As the wife of an incompetent emperor, Catherine overthrew her husband, took control of the country, and then ran Russia better than anyone had for a hundred years. Most of the good old boys of Russian politics could not abide a powerful and competent woman, so they portrayed her as unnatural, oversexed, and immoral. There is no reliable evidence supporting these slanders.
Catherine, Empress of Russia, is portrayed as speaking with a Russian accent; in real life, she was Prussian and her native language was German. She also spoke French from an early age.