private MongoBlob getBlob(String id, long lastMod) {
DBObject query = getBlobQuery(id, lastMod);
// try the secondary first
// TODO add a configuration option for whether to try reading from secondary
ReadPreference pref = ReadPreference.secondaryPreferred();
DBObject fields = new BasicDBObject();
fields.put(MongoBlob.KEY_DATA, 1);
MongoBlob blob = (MongoBlob) getBlobCollection().findOne(query, fields, pref);
if (blob == null) {
// not found in the secondary: try the primary