Short track leading to excellent porch (5)
I believe the answer is:
lanai
'porch' is the definition.
(I know that lanai is a type of art gallery)
'short track leading to excellent' is the wordplay.
'short' means to remove the last letter.
'track' becomes 'lane'.
'leading to' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other) (some letters go before or lead others).
'excellent' becomes 'ai' (resembles 'A1', old-fashioned term for excellent).
'lane' with its final letter taken off is 'lan'.
'lan'+'ai'='LANAI'
(Other definitions for lanai that I've seen before include "Place where Hawaiians live" , "Hawaiian veranda" , "Hawaiian living area" .)