Creates ref_exists? method for Pipeline class

app/models/ci/pipeline.rb

@@ -268,6 +268,10 @@ module Ci
       stage unless stage.statuses_count.zero?
     end
+    def ref_exists?
+      project.repository.ref_exists?(self.ref)
+    end
+
     ##
     # TODO We do not completely switch to persisted stages because of
     # race conditions with setting statuses gitlab-ce#23257.

app/views/projects/pipelines/_info.html.haml

@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@
       = pluralize @pipeline.total_size, "job"
       - if @pipeline.ref
         from
-        - if @project.repository.branch_exists?(@pipeline.ref)
+        - if @pipeline.ref_exists?
           = link_to @pipeline.ref, project_ref_path(@project, @pipeline.ref), class: "ref-name"
         - else
           %span.ref-name

spec/features/projects/pipelines/pipeline_spec.rb

@@ -244,7 +244,7 @@ describe 'Pipeline', :js do
     context 'with deleted branch' do
       before do
-        DeleteBranchService.new(@project, @user).execute(pipeline.ref)
+        allow(pipeline).to receive(:ref_exists?).and_return(false)
       end
       it 'does not render link to the pipeline ref' do