diff --git a/builtin/checkout.c b/builtin/checkout.c
index f5b50e520feb42c50cd1783871eb63d009e0a0e0..3be00188216f503ea1f9269acd312aebdb72a0fa 100644
--- a/builtin/checkout.c
+++ b/builtin/checkout.c
@@ -838,13 +838,16 @@ static int check_tracking_name(struct remote *remote, void *cb_data)
 	memset(&query, 0, sizeof(struct refspec));
 	query.src = cb->src_ref;
 	if (remote_find_tracking(remote, &query) ||
-	    get_sha1(query.dst, cb->dst_sha1))
+	    get_sha1(query.dst, cb->dst_sha1)) {
+		free(query.dst);
 		return 0;
+	}
 	if (cb->dst_ref) {
+		free(query.dst);
 		cb->unique = 0;
 		return 0;
 	}
-	cb->dst_ref = xstrdup(query.dst);
+	cb->dst_ref = query.dst;
 	return 0;
 }