diff --git a/refs.c b/refs.c
index 6aa4893996..156fdcd459 100644
--- a/refs.c
+++ b/refs.c
@@ -1950,24 +1950,17 @@ int ref_update_reject_duplicates(struct string_list *refnames,
 	return 0;
 }
 
-static const char hook_not_found;
-static const char *hook;
-
 static int run_transaction_hook(struct ref_transaction *transaction,
 				const char *state)
 {
 	struct child_process proc = CHILD_PROCESS_INIT;
 	struct strbuf buf = STRBUF_INIT;
+	const char *hook;
 	int ret = 0, i;
 
-	if (hook == &hook_not_found)
-		return ret;
+	hook = find_hook("reference-transaction");
 	if (!hook)
-		hook = xstrdup_or_null(find_hook("reference-transaction"));
-	if (!hook) {
-		hook = &hook_not_found;
 		return ret;
-	}
 
 	strvec_pushl(&proc.args, hook, state, NULL);
 	proc.in = -1;
diff --git a/t/perf/p1400-update-ref.sh b/t/perf/p1400-update-ref.sh
index d275a81248..ce5ac3ed85 100755
--- a/t/perf/p1400-update-ref.sh
+++ b/t/perf/p1400-update-ref.sh
@@ -7,11 +7,13 @@ test_description="Tests performance of update-ref"
 test_perf_fresh_repo
 
 test_expect_success "setup" '
+	git init --bare target-repo.git &&
 	test_commit PRE &&
 	test_commit POST &&
 	printf "create refs/heads/%d PRE\n" $(test_seq 1000) >create &&
 	printf "update refs/heads/%d POST PRE\n" $(test_seq 1000) >update &&
-	printf "delete refs/heads/%d POST\n" $(test_seq 1000) >delete
+	printf "delete refs/heads/%d POST\n" $(test_seq 1000) >delete &&
+	git update-ref --stdin <create
 '
 
 test_perf "update-ref" '
@@ -24,9 +26,14 @@ test_perf "update-ref" '
 '
 
 test_perf "update-ref --stdin" '
-	git update-ref --stdin <create &&
 	git update-ref --stdin <update &&
-	git update-ref --stdin <delete
+	git update-ref --stdin <delete &&
+	git update-ref --stdin <create
+'
+
+test_perf "nonatomic push" '
+	git push ./target-repo.git $(test_seq 1000) &&
+	git push --delete ./target-repo.git $(test_seq 1000)
 '
 
 test_done