Vessel that has a gold tap, short (5)
I believe the answer is:
aorta
'vessel' is the definition.
(blood vessel)
'a gold tap short' is the wordplay.
'gold' becomes 'or' ('or' is the heraldic name for gold).
'short' means to remove the last letter.
'tap' with its final letter removed is 'ta'.
'a'+'or'+'ta'='AORTA'
'that has' is the link.
(Other definitions for aorta that I've seen before include "Major artery of the body" , "blood flows from it" , "Principal artery" , "Bloody channel" , "Blood carrier" .)