diff --git a/hail/python/benchmark/hail/fixtures.py b/hail/python/benchmark/hail/fixtures.py
index 2686f8fd62a..e74c58d060b 100644
--- a/hail/python/benchmark/hail/fixtures.py
+++ b/hail/python/benchmark/hail/fixtures.py
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 import pytest
 
 import hail as hl
+from hailtop.utils import async_to_blocking, retry_transient_errors
 
 
 @pytest.fixture(scope='session')
@@ -23,12 +24,9 @@ def resource_dir(request, tmpdir_factory):
 gs_curl_root = 'https://storage.googleapis.com/hail-common/benchmark'
 
 
-def __download(data_dir, filename):
+async def __download(data_dir, filename):
     url = os.path.join(gs_curl_root, filename)
     logging.info(f'downloading: {filename}')
-    # Note: the below does not work on batch due to docker/ssl problems
-    # dest = os.path.join(data_dir, filename)
-    # urlretrieve(url, dest)
     subprocess.check_call(['curl', url, '-Lfs', '--output', f'{data_dir / filename}'])
     logging.info(f'done: {filename}')
 
@@ -36,7 +34,13 @@ def __download(data_dir, filename):
 def localize(path: Path):
     if not path.exists():
         path.parent.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
-        __download(path.parent, path.name)
+        async_to_blocking(
+            retry_transient_errors(
+                __download,
+                path.parent,
+                path.name,
+            )
+        )
 
     return path