diff --git a/Documentation/RelNotes/2.53.0.adoc b/Documentation/RelNotes/2.53.0.adoc
index 8ae76e0f3e2b99..8b98519268c177 100644
--- a/Documentation/RelNotes/2.53.0.adoc
+++ b/Documentation/RelNotes/2.53.0.adoc
@@ -38,9 +38,6 @@ UI, Workflows & Features
    `--onto` option of "git replay".  Test coverage of "git replay" has
    been improved.
 
- * The split command in "git subtree" (in contrib/) has been taught to
-   deal better with rebased history.
-
  * The iconv library on macOS fails to correctly handle stateful
    ISO/IEC 2022:1994 encoded strings.  Work it around instead of
    replacing it wholesale from homebrew.
diff --git a/GIT-VERSION-GEN b/GIT-VERSION-GEN
index 5adc4afd67488c..92eaab51c65512 100755
--- a/GIT-VERSION-GEN
+++ b/GIT-VERSION-GEN
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 
-DEF_VER=v2.53.0-rc0
+DEF_VER=v2.53.0-rc2
 
 LF='
 '